[semeai]

This is the second-to-last and deciding hand from the GNT finals. Berkowitz, West, defended correctly in this position to defeat 6♥. The other table faced the same effective problem, but with slightly different bidding and a few different cards played.

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Added: Bidding: Sorry for leaving this out. As mikeh deduces below,

mikeh, on 2011-July-25, 15:30, said:

I assume that the 4♠ and 5♠ calls were kickback, not cuebids...this is consistent with the 5♥ (2 with the Q) and 6♥ (no side K) bids by opener.

Partner, East, leads ♥5 as the opening lead.

Play (card led is bold):

W-N-E-S

♥3-7-5-6
♣2-3-7-♥8
♥2-A-4-Q
♥9-K-♠6-♠2
♦K-Q-3-2

Your play as West? (Unfortunately, I can't say for certain what your carding is, but looks like udca from other hands.)

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A follow-up question and mild spoiler:

Spoiler

Only one of the four groups of equivalent choices ♠K, ♠98, ♣J10, ♣654 works. Why?

[xxhong]

Looks like you need to return a low spade to remove dummy's SA as an entry to his diamonds. Declarer may hold something like xx AKJxx QJx AKx, or x AKJxx QJx AKxx, or xx AKJxx QJ AKxx, SK is bad, because partner can be squeezed in S and D later. declarer is unlikely to hold SQ, otherwise, it is quite cold already, especially after partner's pitch in S.

[VM1973]

I cannot follow the play. I think the E and W must be reversed or something.

[semeai]

VM1973, on 2011-July-25, 15:15, said:

I cannot follow the play. I think the E and W must be reversed or something.

I've displayed the cards for each trick in the order W-N-E-S regardless of who led. The card led is bold, to tell you where to start each trick.

[mikeh]

I unfortunately had to stop watching with 4 hands to go: got back just in time to see the commentators wrap things up, so I didn't see this hand played. I assume that the 4♠ and 5♠ calls were kickback, not cuebids...this is consistent with the 5♥ (2 with the Q) and 6♥ (no side K) bids by opener.

I think I would play declarer for something like x AKJxx QJx AKxx. That makes his line appear reasonable...trying for 2 club ruffs puts the contract in jeopardy because of communication issues.

We can't go passive and lead a club because declarer wins, and plays diamond J, diamond to the A and ruffs a diamond. He scores 5 trump, a ruff in dummy, 2 top clubs, 1 spade, and 3 diamonds.

So we have to lead a spade.....the K has to be wrong....now we transfer the spade guard to partner, who will be squeezed in spades and diamonds when declarer cashes his heart and club winners.

So we need to switch to a spade spot....note that doing so kills declarer even if his diamonds were QJ10.

Edit: I was editing out a comment to the effect that it was unfortunate that we didn't know our signalling methods....it was a long, meandering paragraph...anyway I see xxchong came up with the exact same example, and suggested defence as did I and can claim priority

[VM1973]

semeai, on 2011-July-25, 15:18, said:

I've displayed the cards for each trick in the order W-N-E-S regardless of who led. The card led is bold, to tell you where to start each trick.

It's just that normally after N plays E, but West shows on top... and I'm not sure if that should be West on bottom or East on top and so I'm confused. Sorry.

[Phil]

Berkowitz earned me $20 with this play. Yay!

[semeai]

As you likely know if you've read this far into the thread, xxhong and mikeh have nice solutions, in fact including declarer's actual hand up to spot cards (see the vugraph archive of the event for the full hand)!

mikeh, on 2011-July-25, 15:30, said:

I assume that the 4♠ and 5♠ calls were kickback, not cuebids...this is consistent with the 5♥ (2 with the Q) and 6♥ (no side K) bids by opener.

...

Edit: I was editing out a comment to the effect that it was unfortunate that we didn't know our signalling methods....it was a long, meandering paragraph...anyway I see xxchong came up with the exact same example, and suggested defence as did I and can claim priority

Sorry about the lack of bidding and carding discussion! I should've taken more care there.

VM1973, on 2011-July-25, 17:26, said:

It's just that normally after N plays E, but West shows on top... and I'm not sure if that should be West on bottom or East on top and so I'm confused. Sorry.

Is this about the diagram? I just checked West and South in the hand diagram editor and entered their cards and that's how it displayed. It seems the bidding display is in the center of the table. I think other posts I've seen have had the green square as the center of the table. I don't know why it happened this way. Sorry if this was confusing.

Phil, on 2011-July-25, 18:55, said:

Berkowitz earned me $20 with this play. Yay!

Well done to you both!

[whereagles]

Declarer can't have ♠Q because he'd have finessed in spades to them up instead of the diamonds, so yeah, best seems to be small spade back.