[kgr]

Scoring: IMP

---

You are South.
Only East-West bid:
1♦-1♠
2♠-3NT
All Pass
 
Your partner leads ♣5, 4th best. And declarer plays ♣7 from dummy.
What ♣ do you play?
(What do you know about points of partner, distribution of partner, How do you see the defense to defeat 3NT?)
...2nd decision below...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
If declarer gets the lead (if necessary he will cross to dummy with ♠K), he plays a ♦ to his ♦K and your partners ♦A.
Your partner will play ♣2.
What ♣ do you play now?

[pooltuna]

kgr, on Jan 27 2010, 12:45 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

---

You are South.
Only East-West bid:
1♦-1♠
2♠-3NT
All Pass
 
Your partner leads ♣5, 4th best. And declarer plays ♣7 from dummy.
What ♣ do you play?
(What do you know about points of partner, distribution of partner, How do you see the defense to defeat 3NT?)
...2nd decision below...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
If declarer gets the lead (if necessary he will cross to dummy with ♠K), he plays a ♦ to his ♦K and your partners ♦A.
Your partner will play ♣2.
What ♣ do you play now?

The one thing you don't want to do is block the ♣ suit so either win the first ♣ and lead back the J or if you played the J on the first round when partner leads a second ♣ dump the K

[vuroth]

Partner has 4-6 clubs. Partner is also light on HCP.

Parnter having 6 clubs is very unlikely, as it would seem odd that LHO would suggest 3NT with Qx or worse in clubs.

Definitely think about unblocking, so probably K, then return the J. This fails badly if declarer has QT43, but I don't think partner leads the 5 from 9865. Ymmv.

...

In the second case, now I'm unblocking for sure.

[quiddity]

I think this comes down to whether declarer has Qx or Qxx of clubs. If declarer has Qx, you need to play the K to avoid dropping a trick, but if declarer has Qxx and you play the K declarer will be able to win the second and third rounds and you will be out of clubs when you get back in. In addition you know partner has a weak hand and probably doesn't have an outside entry. In that case it's better to play the J and force declarer to guess whether to hold up - usually declarer will just win the Q and then you can play the K under the ace on the next round and still have a club to lead to partner's ten.

If partner has the queen, it doesn't matter whether you play the K or J. You'll hold the trick and lead the other honor to the second trick.

Since West preferred NT to a 4-4 spade fit, 4333 is quite likely. So it looks like the jack is best.

[kgr]

quiddity, on Jan 27 2010, 10:23 PM, said:

I think this comes down to whether declarer has Qx or Qxx of clubs. If declarer has Qx, you need to play the K to avoid dropping a trick, but if declarer has Qxx and you play the K declarer will be able to win the second and third rounds and you will be out of clubs when you get back in. In addition you know partner has a weak hand and probably doesn't have an outside entry. In that case it's better to play the J and force declarer to guess whether to hold up - usually declarer will just win the Q and then you can play the K under the ace on the next round and still have a club to lead to partner's ten.

If partner has the queen, it doesn't matter whether you play the K or J. You'll hold the trick and lead the other honor to the second trick.

Since West preferred NT to a 4-4 spade fit, 4333 is quite likely. So it looks like the jack is best.

Right, declarers hand was:
AJxx
Qxx
Kxx
Qxx
I was declarer and RHO first played ♣J and unblocked ♣K next.
I played LHO for ♦J and was -1.