[cherdano]

Scoring: IMP

1♦-1♠
2♣-2♠
P

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The opponents bid unobstructed to 2♠. You lead ♥8 (3rd best) to partner's ace. Partner continues with the queen and a third heart, declarer following three times.

What is your play at trick 4?

(Of course feel free to mention if you overtook at trick 2.)

[irdoz]

(deleted post - I misread the diagram)

My answer below :-->

Spoiler

Only hope seems to be Qd

If declarer is AKxxxx xxx xx xx a low diamond allows him to duck and set up a long diamond as their 8th trick without needing the club finesse which you know isnt working. If declarer ducks the Qd switch to a club.

[rogerclee]

irdoz, on Mar 9 2008, 11:45 PM, said:

I was kibbing so I know the answer - but i think the hand shown as south has to be north (but I always misread these diagrams) - but the Qs was offside....

This seems right to me. I was declaring and learned never to auto-play a suit combination ever again.

[cherdano]

irdoz, on Mar 10 2008, 12:45 AM, said:

I was kibbing so I know the answer - but i think the hand shown as south has to be north (but I always misread these diagrams) - but the Qs was offside....

I rotated the hand so that North is dummy, and we (on lead) are West.

[manudude03]

Call me suicidal, but I'm going slightly unorthodox and leading the last heart for a ruff and discard. Hopefully partner realises the plan and ruffs high and force out either the Ace or King (or the defence gets an immediate trump trick anyway). If partner is able to ruff with the Jack, you obtain a trump promotion on your 9. It doesn't look like dummy has any discards which would particularly help the declarer so I think overall that this lead is safe enough.

I hope partner has either the King of clubs or the King of diamonds for the setting trick. Even the mere fact that they are not in game suggests partner does have one of these (partner will have shown up with 7 points opposite your 9 at this point if ruffed with Jack and there wasn't even an invite).

[rogerclee]

manudude03, on Mar 9 2008, 11:58 PM, said:

Call me suicidal, but I'm going slightly unorthodox and leading the last heart for a ruff and discard. Hopefully partner realises the plan and ruffs high and force out either the Ace or King (or the defence gets an immediate trump trick anyway). If partner is able to ruff with the Jack, you obtain a trump promotion on your 9. It doesn't look like dummy has any discards which would particularly help the declarer so I think overall that this lead is safe enough.

I hope partner has either the King of clubs or the King of diamonds for the setting trick. Even the mere fact that they are not in game suggests partner does have one of these (partner will have shown up with 7 points opposite your 9 at this point if ruffed with Jack and there wasn't even an invite).

Declarer is not bad enough to overruff when he can simply discard a loser.

[655321]

♦Q looks normal.
♦10 gives partner a chance to make an error, if nothing else.

[gnasher]

I can't think of any layout where it's necessary to overtake the second heart, so I wouldn't have done that.

I'd now play another heart. This works whenever declarer's spades are as weak as KJ87xx or AJ87xx.

At trick one, partner knew that my hearts were KJ8x or K108x (or KJ8/K108 only). If he didn't have anything useful in spades, he should probably have made an uppercut impossible, by playing HQ at trick one and a low heart at trick two. So, I think his highest spade is at least the ten.

We also know that he declined an opportunity to give suit preference for clubs, by playing ♥Q-A-low rather than ♥A-Q-low. Also, he didn't make a takeout double of 1♦.

A heart may lose on these layouts:

- KJ10xxx 10xx xx Kx / Axx AQx Kxx xxxx. I have to play a diamond; declarer will play three rounds of clubs and a spade to the king, but I win the next spade, give partner a ruff with ♠A, and score ♠9 when partner plays a fourth round of clubs.
If partner held this hand, would he have made a takeout double of 1♦? I wouldn't, but I'm an unreconstructed Englishman; I suspect that most of the world would.

- KJ10xxx 10xx Kx xx / Axx AQx xxx Kxxx (or the same with ♠A and ♠K swapped). I have to play a club to give declarer a guess. However, with this hand partner is even more likely to have made a takeout double, and he should have given suit preference for clubs (even though this is inconsistent with the idea of giving declarer a guess).

- KJ10xxxx 10xx K xx / Ax AQx xxxx Kxxx. I have to play a club to knock out dummy's entry. This is quite a specific layout, and again partner should have given suit preference for clubs.

- AKJxxx 10xx xx xx / 10xx AQx Kxx Kxxx. If I switch to ♦Q, declarer has to guess whether to take a trump finesse, or to play ♠AK and a diamond to the nine. I'm not sure if anyone would make a takeout double of 1♦ on this hand, but I think partner should have blocked the heart suit to get me to play a minor.


By the way, consider what might happen if declarer has ♠KJ8xxx, partner has ♠A10x, we haven't already played the fourth heart, and we haven't set up a minor-suit trick. It looks as though declarer is OK - he can lead a spade to the king and another spade. However, partner can counter this by playing ♠10 on the first round of the suit, which allows me to win the second round and get my uppercut after all. I might not have found this defence at the table.