[joshs]

Scoring: IMP

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North opens 3C
East Passes
South bids 3H
West bids 3S

North bids 4H
East bids 4S
South Bids 5H
All Pass
(Do you agree with East's final pass?)

Anyway,
West leads the Spade Ace. What card do you play, and what does it mean? Your agreements are udca.

[kfay]

Playing with my normal partner I'd play the J. We play obvious shift so this says 'I can stand the obvious shift' which is designed to be the suit in which we can probably make the most tricks, this case diamonds.

If I don't like the obvious shift I play low and if I want the non-obvious shift I play the K.

I'd also pass.

[awm]

I would play the ♠J (attitude). I want partner to switch to a diamond.

I'm aware that there is some style of carding where you try to guess what information will be most useful to partner (count/attitude/suit preference) and always signal that. This style can work great when you and partner are on the same page about what is necessary, but is generally not so great when partner wants one signal and you guess that he wants another. My preference is to have an unambiguous agreement. I play attitude at trick one (barring singleton in dummy or dummy winning the trick with a low card I cannot beat) so I will signal attitude.

The high spade signal should indicate that either I don't have the spade king, or I very much want partner to switch to a diamond (the latter being the case here). It is easy to construct hands where a diamond switch at trick two is necessary to beat the contract (give partner six spades to AQ and a trump trick, or six spades to AQ and the diamond ace and nothing in the round suits). It is difficult to construct hands where a spade continuation is needed (the spade continuation may be necessary to prevent the overtrick if declarer has everything, but if we are actually setting this contract generally it will be okay to let partner get in with his side-suit trick before cashing the second spade).

[ArtK78]

I wouldn't be faced with this problem, as I would bid 5♠. Both sides could be making 11 tricks on this hand. I have 3 hearts and the opponents rate to have 8 or 9 of them, so partner is short. My doubleton club is a worry, as partner might have 2 losers there. But we should not have more than one loser in the pointed suits, and we may have none.

It would not be unreasonable for partner to hold:

AQxxxx
x
Axxxx
x

in which case we make and they might also make.

The defensive problem is tough. I like the ♠J suggested by kfay. It is unlikely that we have 2 cashing spades, and if partner does not have the ♦A I don't see any realistic hope for the defense. Furthermore, if partner does not have the ♦A he must have the ♣A or a trump trick, so the second spade trick (if there is one) is not likely to go away.

[Stephen Tu]

Signal = attitude, agree w/ awm reasoning.

[gnasher]

I'd have bid 5♠ - it seems quite likely that someone can make 11 tricks.

When partner cashes a winner in our suit against a high level contract I think one should give count.

[benlessard]

I strongly believe in making the signal as clear as possible. So i drop the K of S.

I would have bid 5S and X is a close 2nd. X tend to suggest some D cards here.