[BunnyGo]

So in this hand, you "know" how the defense is getting 7 tricks at trick 1, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to help partner figure it out.

I wanted to lead a second spade so that wyman could put a diamond through, but I knew it'd look like I just wanted him to lead another spade to clear the suit.

If Noodle had 16 HCP, then I wasn't sure I could count on wyman to have enough to stop them from taking 7 tricks after we took our spades. Is there anything to do from this defensive position (besides overcalling spades)?

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[ArtK78]

♠A and then ♠8.

Just hope he doesn't drop the ♠K under your A.

By the way, I don't see that your getting 7 tricks is anything special. You can always get 9(!) tricks if you get this one exactly right.

If pard lets you hold the ♠A and when you continue a spade to his K he shifts to a low diamond at trick 4, you win the ♦Q and shift to a club. Now, when partner wins his club he can play the ♦J and you get 9 tricks - three diamonds, a club and 5 spades. They can take only their 4 hearts and a club.

You might even get 9 tricks without partner doing anything special. Suppose you just exit a heart and declarer plays A and another club - 9 easy tricks on defense - 2 clubs, 2 diamonds and 5 spades.

[CSGibson]

ArtK78, on 2012-June-18, 14:33, said:

♠A and then ♠8.

Just hope he doesn't drop the ♠K under your A.

By the way, I don't see that your getting 7 tricks is anything special. You can always get 9(!) tricks if you get this one exactly right.

Art, quick question - how do you propose the defense get 9 tricks and declarer get 5, again? I call shenanigans.

[ArtK78]

CSGibson, on 2012-June-18, 14:43, said:

Art, quick question - how do you propose the defense get 9 tricks and declarer get 5, again? I call shenanigans.

Well, if declarer doesn't cash his 5, you can get your 9.

Otherwise, you just have to add another card to each of your hands. I have always said that having 14 cards is great, because you are a heavy favorite to win trick 14.

In all seriousness, I would be surprised if many declarers made as many as 6 tricks in notrump on these cards.

[wyman]

nevermind

[BunnyGo]

to Art (and future readers), the question is what to do from my POV. Partner could have nothing more than the spade king and the two jacks he has. We need to take our 7 tricks ASAP (potentially) so that we set the contract.

If I lead a low spade to partner's King, it's likely partner will continue the suit to "knock out declarer's ace" while hoping I have 3 tricks outside spades before declarer gets 7 tricks.

if I lead the A, partner is likely to think this is asking for an unblock (as was the case).

Is my only hope that partner has Kx of spades? How do I help partner find the winning defense to our 7 tricks?

And yes, on this particular hand, we couldn't go wrong.

[Cyberyeti]

ArtK78, on 2012-June-18, 14:33, said:

♠A and then ♠8.

Just hope he doesn't drop the ♠K under your A.

By the way, I don't see that your getting 7 tricks is anything special. You can always get 9(!) tricks if you get this one exactly right.

If pard lets you hold the ♠A and when you continue a spade to his K he shifts to a low diamond at trick 4, you win the ♦Q and shift to a club. Now, when partner wins his club he can play the ♦J and you get 9 tricks - three diamonds, a club and 5 spades. They can take only their 4 hearts and a club.

You might even get 9 tricks without partner doing anything special. Suppose you just exit a heart and declarer plays A and another club - 9 easy tricks on defense - 2 clubs, 2 diamonds and 5 spades.

Get real, unfortunately partner's hand was K62, 104, J8643 or J8654 depending on 4th/3rd and 5th, K63 and you just let this through by not cashing A♦ after the Q and playing a club instead.

[Stephen Tu]

If you don't want partner to unblock, then you lead SJ 2nd round. When leading from sequence, leading consecutive cards ask partner not to unblock. Either you led from QJx (pity in that case that you attack declarer's suit, but at least you get your two tricks if partner doesn't try to unblock on the J!), or you are purposely blocking the suit because you have tenace elsewhere you want partner to lead through.

If you had some sort of QJTxx type holding and want partner to drive out declarer's ace if he has K, you lead low or ten, not the J.

[ArtK78]

I am sorry, I thought you knew what declarer's no trump range is supposed to be. You didn't mention anything about a psyche.

You mentioned "if Noodle had 16 HCP," but what was his announced range?

[lalldonn]

On this hand I lead a low spade on the second round anyway in case partner started with K2 or T2. I will still get the lead through toward my hand later if he started with K2, T2 (unless they win it, which is fine), KT2, or Kxx2. If he started with Kx2 (not the ten) and returns a third spade I will get two discards out of him, and hopefully either figure out that he has the king of diamonds in which case I will switch to them, or exit in another suit and wait for our tricks which hopefully we would be getting.

[wyman]

ArtK78, on 2012-June-18, 15:44, said:

I am sorry, I thought you knew what declarer's no trump range is supposed to be. You didn't mention anything about a psyche.

You mentioned "if Noodle had 16 HCP," but what was his announced range?

BBO has this feature where alerts and announcements appear in the hand diagram.

I don't get how you can be so condescending at least twice in this thread but not even fully digest the OP.

[ggwhiz]

If you start with the Q♠ and get a count signal (as you would in my partnership) you can block the suit by following with the Ace and another. Pard should not unblock the King not knowing what length I have and I would have led the Ace if I wanted that.

The 3rd spade you lead is your best effort at suit preference and pards ears should go up when they see the spots and know you have blocked em up on purpose (or he's playing with a lunatic).

In this case pard is looking at a clear cut diamond switch due to the cards they can see.

ps. Buy pard a beer if they find the J♦ switch. Leads to -2 here but -3 if you held one of Norths low spots.

pps. If pard had the doubleton King, they played high on trick 1.

[JLOGIC]

Everyone is very biased by the actual hand. As lalldonn said, partner might have Kx of spades, therefore our only option is to play one of the 2 low spades. One of the first rules I was taught was your first priority is to not blow a trick and then it's to signal.

Partner might unblock at trick 1 with Kx on some hands, but defending 1N is probably not one of them, we need 7 tricks and he knows we have HCP, so unblocking would not be correct usually.

So I'd play the S8. Partner if he knew that we had AQJ8x would shift for us, but we might have QJT98 or QJT8x so he would probably continue spades. But in general, you have to hope that if a shift is necessary, your partner might find it. He's not an idiot, he knows if the SK is his only entry that it is usually right to push something through for you. Sometimes you have to guess a little, that's bridge, but you cannot risk blowing a spade trick when partner has Hx in order to try avoiding it.

Let's say partner has no club honor, and no heart honor. He will know that things are looking bleak, and might well find a diamond shift himself by thinking about the problem himself.

[SteveMoe]

Lead the ♠4! Let partner think we have 4 not 5 ♠ tricks coming. Looking at the Dummy, a ♦ switch shouts. Partner will find it!...and yes, partner will always put the ♦J on the table...