[Fluffy]

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IMPs, Standard carding, ♠2 is 3rd/5th, dummy is somewhat unexpected. ♠9 is consistent with doubleton, after west wins ♥K he plays ♦A getting a discouraging ♦2 from East, he tries to sneak a low club then.

+650 is not what you should expect on this board, assing the blame.

EDITED to change ♠J allocation

[ArtK78]

Impressive first call by North.

I think that West was making a hero play at trick 4. You didn't mention whether this was at IMPs or matchpoints. At IMPs, the hero play makes some sense.

West should be alert to the fact that the presence of 6 spades in dummy is highly unexpected, and the possibility exists that partner had a singleton spade and that West's opening lead struck gold. So, play the ♣A and see what partner says. He may be able to tell you whether to play a spade or a diamond when you lead the ♣A. Yes, you could be missing an opportunity to beat 4♥ when partner has the ♣Q with no ♣J, but that is not really very likely, and declarer can get the club suit right even if the right conditions exist.

I don't see how East can place West with the ♣A on the bidding in which case he could encourage diamonds and get back to partner's ♣A. South could certainly hold Axx AQxxx Txx(x) A(x).

[FrancesHinden]

Fluffy, on 2013-May-28, 13:35, said:

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Standard carding, ♠2 is 3rd/5th, ♠9 is consistent with doubleton, after west wins ♥K he plays ♦A getting a discouraging ♦2 from East, he tries to sneak a low club then.

+650 is not what you should expect on this board, assing the blame.

The ♠9 is not consistent with a doubleton. The only spades still missing are the Ace and the Jack. With A9 or AJ9 East would have won the ace at trick 1. With J9 East would have played the Jack to give count (declarer is marked with the ace). Therefore the 9 is a singleton. So win the king of hearts, give partner a spade ruff and dummy's minor suit honours means you can't go wrong on the cashout.

[rogerclee]

FrancesHinden, on 2013-May-28, 14:08, said:

The ♠9 is not consistent with a doubleton. The only spades still missing are the Ace and the Jack. With A9 or AJ9 East would have won the ace at trick 1. With J9 East would have played the Jack to give count (declarer is marked with the ace). Therefore the 9 is a singleton. So win the king of hearts, give partner a spade ruff and dummy's minor suit honours means you can't go wrong on the cashout.

Fluffy didn't write it but I assumed trick 1 went 2 K 9 J, and declarer led the HJ off dummy afterwards.

From west's perspective now if south's hand is something like AJ AQTxx Kxxx Jx (consistent with the bidding/play), a low club is the only prayer, so he was definitely playing for something.

But I think there were enough clues that it was just more likely that a spade will work, and change declarer's club to the non-jack and you are just dropping an overtrick all day.

I don't see how east could have done anything different, neither the 6 nor 8 in trumps is really readable anyway, though the 8 is obv the normal play, another strike against west getting this wrong.

Edit: Oh sorry Frances, I didn't click on the diagram to see the tricks. I agree west lost his mind 100%.

[JLOGIC]

East played the 8 of hearts lol, that alone shoulda been the end of it.

[JLOGIC]

rogerclee, on 2013-May-28, 14:21, said:

I don't see how east could have done anything different, neither the 6 nor 8 in trumps is really readable anyway, though the 8 is obv the normal play, another strike against west getting this wrong.

The 8 is readable as the highest unless declarer led the jack from dummy with AQxxx in his hand.

[cherdano]

So West should have been able to read partner's signal in both major suits, assuming the play in the diagram is correct. In addition, his underlead of the club ace would only work if

• East had the Q, AND
  
• South had the J, at least doubleton, AND
  
• declarer misguesses.

Meanwhile, East had no way to signal for a spade ruff more clearly than he did.

Seems a really tough problem to decide - between 100 or 110% of the blame for West.

[quiddity]

deleted

[Fluffy]

I madfe a misstake, my partner had ♠Jxx here, not declarer

[Fluffy]

so I was selfblaming too much from what I gather, I was afraid I was suposed to read that partner should lead a club with his 3334 unless he has ♣A