[rogerclee]

Scoring: MP

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Auction:
1♥ - (Dbl) - 2♥ - (3♣)
AP

You lead the ♦2, and trick one goes ♦2-9-7-K.

Declarer next leads a small club towards dummy. Your defense?

If you decide to rise ♣A and cash the ♠A, partner will play the ♠2 (upside-down attitude) and declarer will drop the ♠Q.

[Apollo81]

I would normally duck the first round of clubs, win the second (if appl.), and switch to a low spade. The ♦7 on trick 1 (at least in my partnerships) further suggests that this is the right play.

[awm]

Having played this board, it's hard for me to give an objective response. I'll just say that at my table, the person holding this hand played small to the first club in tempo. This was not a success for the defense (although I wouldn't exactly call it a defensive mistake).

[Fluffy]

Surprise me , I don't see the danger on ducking first club. Unless aprtner has ♣QJ and 6 diamonds.

[xcurt]

Fluffy, on Jan 12 2009, 07:18 PM, said:

Surprise me , I don't see the danger on ducking first club. Unless aprtner has ♣QJ and 6 diamonds.

Because we may need to go for +200 by scoring both low trumps. Declarer did bid 3♣ vulnerable so he has to have something. I'm guessing to underlead the heart now, declarer did bid 3♣ vulnerable, aceless, on a queen-high suit. If he has only one major feature it's more likely he has a stiff spade than the ♥K.

If I'm wrong, of course, I'll get zero matchpoints across the field.

Now that I see we're playing matchpoints, I would definitely have whacked 3♣. It's going down most of the time partner has 1 trick and 1 fast entry. Even when partner has the ♦K and some scattered lower honors I can probably control the sequence of plays enough to ensure that declarer loses a fifth trick somewhere in the wash.

[Fluffy]

I also though of ruffing twice xcurt, but the problem is, ruffing twice means 300, not 200. If partner has 2 entries we have 5 top tricks and 1 ruff.

Doubling 3♣ is a heart game try for many people.

[xcurt]

Fluffy, on Jan 13 2009, 05:01 AM, said:

I also though of ruffing twice xcurt, but the problem is, ruffing twice means 300, not 200. If partner has 2 entries we have 5 top tricks and 1 ruff.

Doubling 3♣ is a heart game try for many people.

If partner has ♠Kxx, ♥KJxx, ♦xxxx, ♣xx (and declarer ♠Qx, ♥Qxx, ♦Kxx, ♣QJxxx) we can get 2 spades, 1 heart, 1 club, and up to two ruffs.

[dburn]

xcurt, on Jan 13 2009, 12:35 PM, said:

Fluffy, on Jan 13 2009, 05:01 AM, said:

I also though of ruffing twice xcurt, but the problem is, ruffing twice means 300, not 200. If partner has 2 entries we have 5 top tricks and 1 ruff.

Doubling 3♣ is a heart game try for many people.

If partner has ♠Kxx, ♥KJxx, ♦xxxx, ♣xx (and declarer ♠Qx, ♥Qxx, ♦Kxx, ♣QJxxx) we can get 2 spades, 1 heart, 1 club, and up to two ruffs.

If partner has a 3♥ bid, he should have bid 3♥. But if, as seems possible, one of the hearts in the hand above is in fact a spade...

[xcurt]

dburn, on Jan 13 2009, 01:20 PM, said:

xcurt, on Jan 13 2009, 12:35 PM, said:

Fluffy, on Jan 13 2009, 05:01 AM, said:

I also though of ruffing twice xcurt, but the problem is, ruffing twice means 300, not 200. If partner has 2 entries we have 5 top tricks and 1 ruff.

Doubling 3♣ is a heart game try for many people.

If partner has ♠Kxx, ♥KJxx, ♦xxxx, ♣xx (and declarer ♠Qx, ♥Qxx, ♦Kxx, ♣QJxxx) we can get 2 spades, 1 heart, 1 club, and up to two ruffs.

If partner has a 3♥ bid, he should have bid 3♥. But if, as seems possible, one of the hearts in the hand above is in fact a spade...

Yes, the bidding is curious if the position is what I gave. That's why I led a heart. The hand I gave is my best guess at a construction where ducking the ♣A one round costs.

[awm]

I will say that it seems mildly hard to believe that declarer has made this free bid without holding either of the major suit kings. One can construct hands I suppose (maybe declarer has 1426 shape) but it seems much more likely that declarer holds one of those two cards. This more or less eliminates the chances of getting two ruffs. In addition, it is matchpoint scoring and attempting to get two ruffs when declarer in fact does hold a major suit king could easily cause the contract to make (perhaps with overtricks) when it would fail on more normal defense. For this reason I somewhat like the line of ducking the first club. This has the advantages of:

(1) Perhaps declarer loses a trick to partner's singleton or doubleton queen or jack.
(2) Perhaps partner can signal suit preference on the trump plays to help me decide which ace to underlead.

It loses when partner has both major kings and we can get two ruffs, but seems to win in most other circumstances.