[FrancesHinden]

I don't know if it's actually possible to get this right for the right reasons, but we lost 12 imps on this board.

You are South. Dummy is East. Partner leads and is North.

Scoring: IMP

1♥ P 4♥ x
P 5♣ P P
P

---

Partner leads the 5 of hearts, 3&5th, to your ace.
What do you play at trick 2, and why?

[Yogeshdg]

Return ♦ i guess

[gnasher]

Play a club to avoid being endplayed with it? Maybe declarer has Jx x Qxxx J98xxx and partner xxx KJxxx xxx Kx.

In fact, this doesn't quite work - if that were the layout declarer would probably try to endplay me with the second round of trumps rather than the first. But it's the best I can come up with.

[Codo]

A diamond is neutral, but it gains exactly nothing. Well maybe besides an late entry to spades.
A major looks so plain wrong, I cannot construct hands where this gains.
That leaves a club for me too.

[Rebound]

This may be totally off the wall, but I'm guessing we need to score a club, a heart, and a spade to defeat the contract. I would be concerned that a club return might damage the chances of a trump trick. I'm going to return a passive heart. Partner is unlikely to bid 4♥ with only 4 but a ruff-slough may not hurt if I am right.

If it's totally wrong I hereby use the excuse that cold medication is keeping me from thinking straight

[ceeb]

♦.

12 IMPs? Then 5♣ made. (Alternatively, take the point of view that we should defend on that assumption.) Declarer has a singleton heart from the lead; if also a singleton spade I don't see how the defense can matter. Therefore we have a spade trick hence partner has not got the ♣K.

Surely, then, pd has a black singleton. If Jx,KJ975, Q10xxx,x we have no chance; declarer will strip the hand then play a spade to the 9.

Against 8xxx,x,J10x,KJxxx or 8xxx,x,xx,Kxxxxxx we can come to 2 spade tricks after a minor suit return. A ♥ will probably suffice in the first case.

Against Jxxx,x,xxx,K9xxx a heart return might enhance our chance of a trump trick. (♠ similar(?), but more so had we won the first trick with the ♥Q.) This is a questionable 5♣ bid.

Since 8xxx,x,xx,Kxxxxxx is the only clear-cut 5♣ bid I play a minor. I don't know the psychological effect of leading the ♣Q if declarer has K9xxx but won't go there. So a ♦.

[whereagles]

I'm also having a hard time figuring out why a diamond is wrong. (It must be, otherwise this would't be a problem, lol )

[FrancesHinden]

whereagles, on Mar 10 2008, 07:32 PM, said:

I'm also having a hard time figuring out why a diamond is wrong. (It must be, otherwise this would't be a problem, lol )

Yes, I think the responses confirm that it's basically impossible to get this right for the right reasons. Here's what happened:

---

At the table where our team was defending, North led a heart to South's ace, and in the position given as a problem South returned a diamond. Declarer drew trumps, eliminated diamonds and played a spade endplaying South for 11 tricks.

At the table where our team was declaring, North led the king of hearts (a good choice I think). He could have beaten the contract by force with a spade switch, but instead switched to a diamond from the North cards. Declarer had the choice of playing for the diamond finesse, or for playing for spades to come in with one loser. The second is clearly better odds, so that is what he played for.

I was dummy on the hand so I can't be blamed for what happened at either table... except of course I should have bid 4S rather than double, because I would have made that!

[655321]

It is not clear to me that playing on spades does give better odds than taking the diamond finesse. South has turned up with a singleton trump, and the ♠K is likely to be with the opening bidder - particularly if you take the Ace at trick 1 at face value. You can afford running a spade pip first in case North has the Jack and the Ten, then even cashing the ♠A before finessing in diamonds.

Agree that ♥K lead was clearly better than a low one.

Edit: Oops - contract is 5♣, so losing an early spade doesn't work too well.
But an immediate diamond finesse still seems plausible.

This post has been edited by 655321: 2008-March-11, 05:34

[whereagles]

Did declarer play this well? After the ♥K lead, there's little room for North to have the ♠K, so the best play might be..

1 ♦A
2 pull trumps ending in hand
3 play a spade, ducking to South, who's now endplayed

[gnasher]

whereagles, on Mar 11 2008, 12:07 PM, said:

Did declarer play this well? After the ♥K lead, there's little room for North to have the ♠K, so the best play might be..

1 ♦A
2 pull trumps ending in hand
3 play a spade, ducking to South, who's now endplayed

He just exits with a diamond and waits for his second spade trick. The point of the hand is that to make it you have to cash three diamonds before endplaying South.

[whereagles]

ah, yes. I play too fast.. lol

Still, as it went it's pretty good odds opener has ♠K, so finessing the diamond is probably better than trying for 1 spade loser.