[Mr. Dodgy]

Scoring: MP

P-1♣-1♥-P;
P-2♣-2♥-2♠;
P-P-3♥-P;
P-3♠-AP

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♥5-♥3-♥K-♥4

Playing 1/3/5 UDCA, and seeing the cards played to the 1st trick, I figured partner must have been singleton ♥, so returned the ♥2 for a ruff. Didn't work out so well. How would you defend?

[jdaming]

Bidding seems to be an issue here. 13 points are unaccounted for and nobody seems to own them.

What do you lead from a douleton? If high then seems like singleton is only possiblity. If low then it is more ambigous.

The 2 return doesn't seem bad though I think I would probably return the 7 so partner knows that I have the A♦.

[ArtK78]

I don't understand. Why can't partner have 3 hearts? Because he didn't raise? When was he supposed to raise? Suppose he has a 3343 4 count - is he supposed to raise?

Besides, if partner has a small singleton heart, then LHO has Q964 of hearts. With club shortness and hearing partner bid twice why did he not double 3♥?

I would cash the HA and the DA and hope that pard has 2 spade tricks. Not impossible.

[jtfanclub]

ArtK78, on Jan 4 2008, 03:51 PM, said:

I would cash the HA and the DA and hope that pard has 2 spade tricks. Not impossible.

Surely partner cannot have 4 hearts.

I'd cash AK and A and lead another diamond. I don't think the discard on declarer's Q♥ if he has it is worth anything.

[Mr. Dodgy]

jdaming, on Jan 4 2008, 03:26 PM, said:

What do you lead from a douleton?  If high then seems like singleton is only possiblity.  If low then it is more ambigous.

The 2 return doesn't seem bad though I think I would probably return the 7 so partner knows that I have the A♦.

Playing 1/3/5 leads I expect that the lead would be top of a doubleton. But I could easily be wrong, and am happy to be advised if this presumption is incorrect.

How does the ♥7 signify posession of the ♦A better than the ♥2? Would the latter indicate a preference for a ♣ lead (thus a singleton/void?)

[Mr. Dodgy]

ArtK78, on Jan 4 2008, 03:51 PM, said:

I don't understand. Why can't partner have 3 hearts? Because he didn't raise? When was he supposed to raise? Suppose he has a 3343 4 count - is he supposed to raise?

Yeah, I would expect partner to push on with 3+♥s on the 3rd/4th round.

[y66]

At the table, I think I’d’ve played p for heart shortness as well, and declarer for something like Jxxxx, Qxxx, Jxx, x. You’d think he’d try 1S with that though.

If he has that hand, don’t think we need to defend too actively. Will try HA and see what develops.

If p follows to HA, I’ll play declarer for Kxxxx, xx, Jxxx, xx. Now I think we have to take our tricks before he sets up clubs. So, DA, then Dx to p’s hoped for king.

C’mon p, have something!

P is there! He takes DK and continues diamonds, forcing dummy to ruff and taking out declarer’s spade entry to long clubs.

Good d p!

Didn't think you could have 3 hearts and not raise. See why you might not though, with QJx, Qxx, Kxxx, xxx at red.

[jdonn]

I agree with just cashing our tricks. Consider that even if partner does have a stiff heart, you might be giving him a ruff with a natural trump trick like KQ, KJ, QJx, etc. In fact that is very likely since you know your LHO is quite weak and I would think has six spades to bid this way.

[jdonn]

ArtK78, on Jan 4 2008, 03:51 PM, said:

I don't understand.  Why can't partner have 3 hearts?  Because he didn't raise?  When was he supposed to raise?  Suppose he has a 3343 4 count - is he supposed to raise?

Besides, if partner has a small singleton heart, then LHO has Q964 of hearts.  With club shortness and hearing partner bid twice why did he not double 3♥?

The second paragraph seems a far weaker inference than that if partner is a 3343 4 count, LHO passed over 1♥ with a 5242 9 count. There is no way partner has three hearts unless someone is off their rocker.

[Mr. Dodgy]

Here's the full hand:

Scoring: MP

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I think I may have attacked trumps from the opening lead myself, but maybe I'm just trying to find excuses.