[louisg]

Scoring: IMP

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2♣-2♦-2NT-3♦-4♥

Say you lead the ♣7 (3rd/5th) to partner's Queen and declarer's Ace (would be interested in comments about the opening lead problem, but it's not intended to be the focal point of this post). Declarer plays ♥A, ♥K, ♥2, while partner follows with the ♥J and then discards 2 clubs that indicate his original club holding was probably Qxxx.

How do you defend?

[Fluffy]

It's hard to imagine why did declarer play third heart.

Spade is the safe lead, I will try it.

[Codo]

1. I hate the lead from an unsupported king into a big hand.

2. I would change my discarding system,so that I can show something more interresting then Qxxx. Normally you can take the queen for the first trick and use the two discards to show some preferences in the other suits or at least one preference and one length signal in Club.

3. If Fluffy says Spade, I lead a spade.

[gnasher]

Partner's failure to discard either a spade or a diamond suggests that he's 4144. Partner could give suit preference with his third club, but I assume that we couldn't read that.

Declarer has 11 HCP in spades and diamonds.

If declarer has ♦KJx and ♠AKx, we can't beat it.

If declarer has ♦AKx and ♠Axx (or the other way around), it doesn't matter whether I return a spade or a diamond - partner has two tricks, and neither is going anywhere.

If declarer has ♦Axx and ♠AK10, I can't afford to play a spade, but a diamond beats it.

If declarer has ♦AK10 and ♠Axx, a diamond lets it through, but with KQ10x J Qxxx xxxx partner might have done something to suggest a spade switch.

I switch to ♦J. (I thought about ♦9, hoping that with ♦AK10 and ♠Axx declarer would then go wrong, but then I'd face an awkward guess if he won partner's queen with the ace and played a low diamond back to my jack.)

Fluffy, on Jan 11 2009, 08:16 PM, said:

It's hard to imagine why did declarer play third heart.

Maybe he was hoping you'd play a spade back?

[nige1]

louisg, on Jan 11 2009, 12:00 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP


2♣-2♦-2NT-3♦-4♥
Say you lead the ♣7 (3rd/5th) to partner's Queen and declarer's Ace (would be interested in comments about the opening lead problem, but it's not intended to be the focal point of this post).  Declarer plays ♥A, ♥K, ♥2, while partner follows with the ♥J and then discards 2 clubs that indicate his original club holding was probably Qxxx.
How do you defend?

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• Perhaps an opening ♠ lead would have been safer because the strength is on your right.
  
• I also agree that you should now lead a ♠ in case declarer has ♠ATx ♥AKTx ♦AKT ♣AJx

[Hanoi5]

A spade.

[louisg]

gnasher, on Jan 11 2009, 07:19 PM, said:

Partner's failure to discard either a spade or a diamond suggests that he's 4144.  Partner could give suit preference with his third club, but I assume that we couldn't read that.

Declarer has 11 HCP in spades and diamonds.

If declarer has ♦KJx and ♠AKx, we can't beat it.

If declarer has ♦AKx and ♠Axx (or the other way around), it doesn't matter whether I return a spade or a diamond - partner has two tricks, and neither is going anywhere.

If declarer has ♦Axx and ♠AK10, I can't afford to play a spade, but a diamond beats it.

If declarer has ♦AK10 and ♠Axx, a diamond lets it through, but with KQ10x J Qxxx xxxx partner might have done something to suggest a spade switch.

I switch to ♦J.  (I thought about ♦9, hoping that with ♦AK10 and ♠Axx declarer would then go wrong, but then I'd face an awkward guess if he won partner's queen with the ace and played a low diamond back to my jack.)

This is a good analysis as far as it goes, but I would have liked to see a couple of other points addressed:

1) Why must declarer have EXACTLY 11 points in spades and diamonds? I don't know what ranges EW were playing, but is it normal to force to game with a 4x3 24 count? Is it normal to superaccept with a 4x3 23 count?

2) What do you make of declarer's failure to unblock hearts by leading the ♥2 rather than the ♥T at trick 4? This is probably careless technique in any case, but if declarer had a finessable position in a pointed suit, wouldn't he be more likely to take the care to unblock hearts? Note for example that if declarer has ♠AKT and ♦Axx, failure to unblock means that you can defeat the contract even by continuing clubs, since declarer can only get to dummy for a spade finesse by ruffing the good ♣J, which he needs for a discard.

[gnasher]

louisg, on Jan 13 2009, 03:55 AM, said:

1)  Why must declarer have EXACTLY 11 points in spades and diamonds?  I don't know what ranges EW were playing, but is it normal to force to game with a 4x3 24 count?  Is it normal to superaccept with a 4x3 23 count?

Because I couldn't construct any layout where declarer has more and we can still beat the contract. On any layout where this is beatable I think declarer has overbid, but I'm still going to assume that that's what he's done.

Quote

2)  What do you make of declarer's failure to unblock hearts by leading the ♥2 rather than the ♥T at trick 4?  This is probably careless technique in any case, but if declarer had a finessable position in a pointed suit, wouldn't he be more likely to take the care to unblock hearts?

That's true. Perhaps the layout I was playing for can't exist against a competent declarer.

[louisg]

In fact, declarer had ♠KQx and ♦AKx, and a shift to either pointed suit will work (but note that if declarer also had the ♦T you would need to shift to a spade).

Regarding the opening lead problem, note that it is necessary to lead a club at trick one to establish your club trick before it can go on a spade. It's an interesting situation IMO; you have to set up your club trick at trick one but avoid cashing it when you regain the lead.

The full deal:

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