[inquiry]

A couple of issues. First, I managed to get the display with south as declarer by using the hv = lin command and just entering SHDC with no cards for West and South. Then I decided to add the cards that West and South played to the first two tricks to their hands, so you could "see" the played cards. If nothing else this shows that the hand diagram can be used with declarer in the south seat, without too much work.

So far, trick one

 W   N   E   S
♣5 ♣6 ♣7 ♣Q

After Declarer won the first club with the queen, as you can see he returned the 13th club as partner discarded an encouraging ♦Jack.

Maybe there is nothing much to this hand, but I thought it ended up being cute. Plan your defense.

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[inquiry]

Well, nearly 24 hours later and no one found it interesting.

It is difficult to find a good rationale for it at the table, but unblocking clubs was the key to taking the maximum number of tricks on defense. You can't allow yourself to be thrown in for a forced major suit lead later in the hand.

Your partner will signal he doesn't like ♠ (should have done that first, since he likes both majors, and maybe the unblock in clubs would be more readily discoverable). The ♣10 was played at trick two to signal something useful in spades. But when the third round of clubs is lead (either at trick three or later, the ♣8 has to be jettitsoned or declarer might find the low club exit to your hand at the cost of one trick, but the gain of two.

When south gains the lead in ♠'s he leads the ♦9 then a ♦.

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[matmat]

hi Ben,
I guess I am a little confused, once declarer fails to lead a heart from hand at trick 2, can't the defence always arrange to take this off 2?

Say declarer does throw east in with the 4th club, can't east cash the spade ace, clearing that suit off dummy, then exit with the ♦9?

(i am probably missing something)

[rhm]

matmat, on 2011-April-23, 00:06, said:

hi Ben,
I guess I am a little confused, once declarer fails to lead a heart from hand at trick 2, can't the defence always arrange to take this off 2?

Say declarer does throw east in with the 4th club, can't east cash the spade ace, clearing that suit off dummy, then exit with the ♦9?

(i am probably missing something)

The whole discussion is to me double dummy and centers around getting it 3 down, not 2.
Declarer did not tackle ♥s early when he could have played both defenders for ♥AKx, but will play West having ♥AKx later with the help of a ♣ end-play if you do not unblock the ♣s,
The ♣ play happens to win two tricks for one, because declarer looses only 2 ♥ tricks instead of 3 and will keep control control that way.
If you unblock the ♣s declarer will make 6 trump tricks, provided the defense will also at the right moment when South is out of ♥s give declarer the ♠king as a seventh trick.
A bit over the top I dare say.

Rainer Herrmann

[inquiry]

rhm, on 2011-April-24, 04:54, said:

The whole discussion is to me double dummy and centers around getting it 3 down, not 2.
Declarer did not tackle ♥s early when he could have played both defenders for ♥AKx, but will play West having ♥AKx later with the help of a ♣ end-play if you do not unblock the ♣s,
The ♣ play happens to win two tricks for one, because declarer looses only 2 ♥ tricks instead of 3 and will keep control control that way.
If you unblock the ♣s declarer will make 6 trump tricks, provided the defense will also at the right moment when South is out of ♥s give declarer the ♠king as a seventh trick.
A bit over the top I dare say.

Rainer Herrmann

It probably is very double dummish, but this defense was found but for the wrong reason. The ♣10 was played on the second round as suit preference showing a spade value. The club eight was played on the next round of clubs in a mistaken concept to clearly deny a diamond card -- turns out it doesn't do that. I don't know if declarer would have found the club endplay if the clubs had not been unblocked, but later study suprizingly showed unblocking clubs was the only way to ensure a three trick set. Winning defense, wrong reasoning. I found this interesting, and I wondered if anyone could have figured it out at the table. One might unblock clubs on the general principle declarer can pull your trumps anyway so remove a possible endplay, but one might keep a big club ont he principle that if declerer can't afford to pull trumps early, a potential trump promotion might occur.

Anyway, I found the play interesting, if for the wrong reason, and I was glad to find a way to post defense hands in the forum with the correct orientation.