[inquiry]

Click NEXT button to step through the first two tricks.

You start with a conservative pass and the opponents bid to 6♥ before you can blink an eye. You decide to start with the ♣King planning to get back in with the ♥A to cash your ♣Q. Dummy's long clubs take you by surprise as South discards a spade.

Plan A goes out the window. What is Plan B. Be specific.

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[BunnyGo]

Cute problem. Where'd you see it played?

Spoiler

My first instinct is that partner just may have the heart ten. I surely can't count on him for a diamond trick. But I should slow down and try to count out the hand.

It seems that partner has 6 spades to the K, and the stiff J of clubs.

Declarer had 2 small spades (or maybe Qx or Jx) and club void. He also has at least 7 hearts to the KQ, maybe as many as 9. This gives him 2-4 diamonds, surely with the A.

If declarer has 3- diamonds (or 5+) there is no possible trick coming to us except a heart. If he has exactly 4 diamonds, partner's spots may just hold up (he needs T9xx or just the T and a misplay by declarer).

I'm still going to go with the heart T being in partner's hand as the best chance of setting this, because the other possibilities are not hurt by leading another club here anyways.

The easiest chance to mess up comes now, but I'll lead the club 2. I don't want to risk partner not trumping this and then our J and T of hearts both falling under the Q.

[Antrax]

The only plan I can think of is playing a low club, trying to get partner to give me a trump promotion if he happens to have the ♥T

[vuroth]

Agree, trump promotion seems like the best shot. 2♣

[quiddity]

This is an interesting poker problem. Declarer is far more likely to have the ♥T than partner, so how can we maximize our chances if declarer has it? We could lead a low club - then if partner has the T we can beat it for sure and if he doesn't then he can refrain from ruffing and declarer might misread the position. But would we ever play a low club here if we started with a singleton trump? It could be suicidal to force partner to ruff in front of declarer and it could be suicidal to give him a free pitch on the club. Maybe it's better to play a high club - partner can still ruff with the T if he has it, and the play doesn't give away the position of the jack. Or maybe it's better to play on spades or diamonds; an expert declarer will ask himself why we didn't take our obvious chance to set the contract and he might talk himself into a second-round finesse.

[semeai]

Spoiler

As quiddity says, it's more likely partner has no ♥T than that he does.

If declarer has KQTxxx or KQTxxxx even, he should finesse on the next round. With six this is clear, and with seven, there is one way each for A - Jxx and AJ - xx, but we may be marked with the club length, and especially are if we show him that partner is out of clubs. Thus I lead ♣Q. Partner can work out to ruff with ♥T and not otherwise.

As a small matter of technique, if we were sure we wanted partner to ruff, but were worried about declarer's pitch if partner shows out (this could never matter on this hand), we could lead ♣10 to ask for an "overtake," i.e. ruff, instead of leading a small club. Even that doesn't make sense here, though, as it gives the show away in hearts (ignoring any poker playing possibility as quiddity mentions though). Partner should be able to work out that it's free to ruff with a now stiff ♥T when we lead ♣Q.

[inquiry]

Well the hand was what most figured. Partner has the heart ten, you led a lowish club to force partner to ruff and we get a trump promotion. Leading the TEN has some advantage.

Of course, the poker aspect I thought would be beyond a post in the beginner/intermediate forum, but it deserves discussion as well since quiddity correctly brought the issue up.

If you led the ♣Q, partner who knows south is out of clubs should always ruff with the ten if he has it. But with just a small heart with no chance of trump promotion he just pitchs a spade. This way, you have the poker play and your trump promotion play. This play however places a lot of pressure on your partner to "ruff" your good club, and for him to see the need requires a good bit of experience by your partner. As a beginner problem, low club back has to be considered a correct answer.

Note: Queen back is likely to get a hook to your hand when partner lacks the heart ten. Why? South will realize you have six clubs to your partners one, that you likely have 4 spades to your partners six, and when a heart comes from dummy and your partner plays the spot, he will have two hearts (last heart spot counts) to your one. So your partner has four open places for the heart jack to your two open places. Plus, with the heart JACK you WOULD have tried for the trump promotion by leading a low club, so he will finesse. So club queen back is excellent choice even if partner is not clever enough to ruff with the heart ten when holding.

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[Antrax]

And as usual, an aside: is south's 4♥ bid a good one?

[cherdano]

Antrax, on 2011-September-03, 00:02, said:

And as usual, an aside: is south's 4♥ bid a good one?

Looks acceptable to me. If you want to criticize the bidding, I would suggest starting with our pass over 4♥ (although you don't necessarily have to stop there).

[Antrax]

I'm not criticising anything, just asking. Isn't the 4♥ bid a violation of the "don't preempt over a preempt" rule? With only 9 HCP and a void opposite partner's suit, why not double instead of jumping around? Maybe we belong in diamonds, or in a defensive crossruff?

[inquiry]

Antrax, on 2011-September-03, 10:16, said:

I'm not criticising anything, just asking. Isn't the 4♥ bid a violation of the "don't preempt over a preempt" rule? With only 9 HCP and a void opposite partner's suit, why not double instead of jumping around? Maybe we belong in diamonds, or in a defensive crossruff?

I generally am not going to try to defend the auctions. On this hand, ask yourself what was 4♠? Clearly a slam try with a spade control. So north is inviting slam. If you take this auction as a slam try, South has to look at his hand and decide is he good for the given auction? Well he has two first round controls and fairly nice hearts. So when invited he decided to accept the invite.

2ND. East made a weak jump overcall (2♠). Whatever you consider the rule about bidding again after you preempt, there is another rule that is even more solid and should always be followed: Never preempt over an opponent's preempt. So in fact, south's 4♥ bid was not a preempt (or would not be so to me). Since it wasn't a preempt, with the south hand I would PASS over 5♥ because my hand is not very good tor the 4♥ bid (non-preempt).

The point of the hand was to consider where the 2nd trick was coming from and workout the need to continue clubs into declarer's void.

[BriddlesBo]

Seems relying on a specific T!H is rather asking a lot. I play the Ace !H and return a !H and depend on partner holding length in !D to stop !D Declarer still has a !S loser too.

[gwnn]

Antrax, on 2011-September-03, 10:16, said:

I'm not criticising anything, just asking. Isn't the 4♥ bid a violation of the "don't preempt over a preempt" rule? With only 9 HCP and a void opposite partner's suit, why not double instead of jumping around? Maybe we belong in diamonds, or in a defensive crossruff?

Double here is bad because it is a very unspecific call (in principle it merely shows 9+ points and 4 hearts, and to make matters worse sometimes you will double even on 3 hearts; also it is not a game forcing bid). If you want, you can start with 3♥, game forcing with 5+ hearts, that is a good description of your hand, but then if partner bids 3NT, are you really happy to pass that? Not really. It is a good idea to bid 4♥ here to show that you are bidding it on length, then 3♥ and 4♥ over 3NT shows that you are bidding it on points, sort of.

Also, if partner passes our double, are we happy? I wouldn't be.

The "don't preempt over a preempt" rule is interpreted in many ways; it would be a happier world if we just forgot it. I think it's supposed to mean that if RHO opens with a preempt and we jump over it, it shows a good hand and not a preempt. (e.g. (2♥)-2♠ shows something like 11-15, 3♠ shows something like 15-17 with 6 and 4♠ shows something like 15-18 with 7 (please don't take these numbers literally!! I just used numbers because they're easier to understand)).

[Phil]

BriddlesBo, on 2011-October-11, 05:38, said:

Seems relying on a specific T!H is rather asking a lot. I play the Ace !H and return a !H and depend on partner holding length in !D to stop !D Declarer still has a !S loser too.

Welcome to the forums (kinda).

Inquiry sets up these hands to try to get the reader to count, draw the proper inferences, and then play accordingly. I won't respond directly, but ask yourself:

A. How many clubs does declarer have (we know this one)?
B. How many spades did declarer start with (we can figure this one out)?
C. Based on A and B, how many red cards does declarer have?
D. Why did declarer discard a spade instead of a diamond (by the way, is that such a clear play?)?