[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     -     1♦    Pass
 1♠    Pass  1NT   Pass
 2♣    Pass  3NT   Pass
 Pass  Pass  

C7 C2 C8 CQ
CK C6 C3 C9
D4 D2 DJ DK
H2 H3 HT H7


Partner leads ♥'s on the 4th trick and you take it with the ♥10, do you continue ♥'s A or 8, or switch?

[vuroth]

A♥, small ♥.

Partner seems to be guaranteed a heart honour - has at least 9 HCP, no more than 3HCP in the black. Has already shown K♦. If partner has Qxx xxxx AKx Jxx or the like, then why is declarer attacking diamonds first? No, declarer is trying to establish ♦, partner is trying to establish ♥. ♠ may be our best bet, but I'd much, much much rather partner lead them.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

just a general remark: A good agreement to have is to play
attidude leads, if one attacks a new suit, i.e. partners card
should show / deny interest in the new suit he attaced.

Usually you play low as an encouraging signal, and high as
a discouraging signal, but if you play standard, there is
certainly nothing wrong with going high as encourging, although
this may be slightly inferior in the given situation.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Codo]

Hi Kathryn,

yxour diagram was not your best effort ever.

So the West hand was on lead and tried a club from two low?

I dislike the lead and had prefered heart by far. If 2 club was artifical, pd could have doubled it with real good clubs. And if it was a real suit, you should lead the unbid suit.

NowI can choose between a heart and a spade.
Declarer has 2 spades, 4 hearts 5 diamonds and 2 clubs- from the bidding and play so far. He should have some high cards in hearts, after all he jumped to 3 NT, so the unbid suits should be well stopped.
So mayb he has something around KJxx in hearts, AQxxx in diamonds and KQ in clubs. No more room for the queen of spades.

Maybe he has a lesser hand in hearts, but I would doubt it.

So I would lead a small spade to take 3 spade tricks together with 2 hearts and a diamond for two down.

[se12sam]

Declarer most likely started with ♣KQ tight. When you win ♥10, you can start disconnecting declarer from dummy by giving up a spade trick and switching to ♠J. Declarer can win the ♠Q in hand, if they wish.

When you win the next trick, you can exit with ♠K (after cashing ♥A if still with you) and completely break off communications for declarer. Your side can then hope to score the fifth trick in due course.

[skjaeran]

Using attitude leads here, I continue ♥A ♥8.

[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

- - 1♦ Pass
1♠ Pass 1NT Pass
2♣ Pass 3NT Pass
Pass Pass

C7 C2 C8 CQ
CK C6 C3 C9
D4 D2 DJ DK
H2 H3 HT H7

Codo, on Jun 14 2009, 11:49 PM, said:

Hi Kathryn,
your diagram was not your best effort ever.

Hehe do you mean this isnt my best hand diagram or not my best play?
I never post my good hands on here

I was south and did lead from xx♣. 2♣ was nmf suggesting 5♠’s, I didn’t like my other options.

After taking 10♥ I switched to ♠'s and cost us 1 trick.

[Phil]

If I'm reading this correctly...

Declarer doesn't have the entries to establish and cash the clubs unless declarer is playing games with us. There is a serious shortage of tricks on this hand.

Declarer is most certainly something along the lines of Qx, KJxx, QJxxx, KQ. It's quite possible RHO is a very heavy 1N rebid judging from the strange 3N rebid; perhaps an offshape hand that they didn't want to open 1N.

The ♥K, ♠Q, and maybe the diamonds are a little unknown. Just exit the ♥10 and let declarer do the work.

[matmat]

hi Kathryn... your diagram is waaaay off. the ♠KJTx hand is under the ♠Axxxx hand.

[se12sam]

jillybean2, on Jun 17 2009, 09:24 PM, said:

Codo, on Jun 14 2009, 11:49 PM, said:

Hi Kathryn,
your diagram was not your best effort ever.

Hehe do you mean this isnt my best hand diagram or not my best play?
I never post my good hands on here

I think the preferred way to show a defensive hand (opening leader + dummy) is to show the declarer (closed hand) as South and display your (opening leader's) hand as West + dummy as North. Your display may have confused because you are South, declarer is East and dummy is West.

jillybean2, on Jun 17 2009, 09:24 PM, said:

After taking 10♥ I switched to ♠'s and cost us 1 trick.

Did you lead the ♠3? Then declarer must have put up dummy's ♠9 which wins, and would then have set up the clubs in dummy while the ♠A was still in dummy. How about leading ♠J instead? Would it have defeated the contract?

[cherdanno]

Phil, on Jun 17 2009, 04:06 PM, said:

If I'm reading this correctly...

Declarer doesn't have the entries to establish and cash the clubs unless declarer is playing games with us. There is a serious shortage of tricks on this hand.

Declarer is most certainly something along the lines of Qx, KJxx, QJxxx, KQ. It's quite possible RHO is a very heavy 1N rebid judging from the strange 3N rebid; perhaps an offshape hand that they didn't want to open 1N.

The ♥K, ♠Q, and maybe the diamonds are a little unknown. Just exit the ♥10 and let declarer do the work.

Phil, I don't think you quite read this correctly. For starters, declarer doesn't have ♦J. His diamond play makes little sense unless he is either has ♦AQ, or he is very desperate.
I don't see why you think declarer has ♣KQ tight. Why can't he have ♣KQJ and was testing whether the suit splits? Or ♣KQJT? Or ♣KQT, with partner playing low on the first trick since he read our lead and didn't want to give away the distribution?

I think there is a good chance that declarer has ♠xx ♥Qxx ♦AQxxx ♣KQJ, or
♠xx ♥Kxx ♦AQxxx ♣KQT. The one thing we we must not do is to give him his heart trick when he has ♥K and ♦A. Given that partner always has the ♠Q when he doesn't have the ♦A, it is safe to switch to a spade (when declarer has ♠Q, he doesn't have ♦A and it is only a matter of undertricks).