[inquiry]

MATCHPOINTS: Carding is UDCA. Your partner's double was "takeout", but you decided to defend anyway.

You start with the ♦A, and partner follows with the ♦4. What do you lead to trick two, and what is the basic plan of your defense?

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[vuroth]

Thinking

[quiddity]

Dummy doesn't have an obvious source of tricks apart from possible club ruffs. I would try a small diamond to partner's queen hoping for a trump return.

[inquiry]

Quiddity got the problem right, along with the "basic idea" for the defense.

MATCHPOINTS: Carding is UDCA. Your partner's double was "takeout", but you decided to defend anyway.

You start with the ♦A, and partner follows with the ♦4. What do you lead to trick two, and what is the basic plan of your defense?

When present this problem at the table, one player (and it looks like many others) were afraid to under lead the KJx of diamonds at trick two. The student I talked to was worried that partner "might have a doubleton" (after all he would play low from two small). That fear can greatly be discounted. Why? Because we are certain partner does not have five hearts (no jacoby transfer), and likely has two spades at most, and maybe only one. His "take out double" of 2♠ suggest support for all suits, with five clubs and four hearts and 2-2 in the other suits he might have just bid 3♣ rather than risk you bidding diamonds. If he had 2♣ and 5♦ he wouldn't have such worries and could still double 2♠ for takeout because he can pull 2♣ to 2♦.

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Once you get past the fact that you could, if you wanted, enter partner's hand with a low diamond, you need to ask yourself should you? The fact that a club ruff (or two) in dummy looks possible suggest that a trump from partner's side of the table might lead to the best defense. Partner rates to have about 6 to 8 hcp on this auction. The diamond Queen and probably two more honors divided between hearts and clubs. It is somewhat unlikely that he has something like the spade Queen and Ace or King in hearts or clubs, because he is somewhat less likely to bid with "wasted" values in spades, and South is less likely to overcall VULNERABLE with a AJxxx(x) of spades. All this suggest, as Quiddity correctly noted, not much help in dummy other than possible club ruff, so letting partner in a to lead a trump is great general idea.

On a low diamond to partner's queen, partner should workout the need for a trump switch with a doubleton club in dummy. This defense would earn you 200 and a top. Any other defense and you lose to people in part=scores your way.

[bd71]

quiddity, on 2011-September-19, 15:08, said:

Dummy doesn't have an obvious source of tricks apart from possible club ruffs. I would try a small diamond to partner's queen hoping for a trump return.

I'm actually going to lead a ♠, taking a small risk of costing us a trick in this suit. But I do think the risk is small: partner would need either ♠Q or ♠J, and that means South bid 2♠ with AQxxx(x) or AJxxx(X) with his strength underneath mine. I also think there are two affirmative reasons to lead a ♠:

1. I might need ♦ later as exit cards.
2. We may need to start drawing dummy's trump now to prevent a ♣ ruff if partner has the ♣K. I think it's much more likely partner has K♣ than a ♠ honor.

[bd71]

So the timing worked out strange here; I was drafting my response as Ben made his...I promise I wasn't cheating.

Having said that, doesn't leading a trump lead to an extra trick for us by preventing a club ruff?

(Edited to correct an obvious error.)

[wyman]

A trump from partner's side means 0 club ruffs for declarer. A trump from our side leads to 1 club ruff for declarer. (trump won by declarer, ace and out a club, now another trump on which declarer flies ace and ruffs a club)

The key here is that partner has some diamonds, so the 4 can't be bottom of a doubleton. It has to show the queen (partner would play high from 3 small). Partner will know, when you lead low to his queen, that you needed him on lead for some reason. When he thinks about declarer's tricks, he'll see the impending club ruffs and realize that a trump return is called for. Hopefully. You'll then congratulate each other on a very nice defense and on your +300 MP top.

edit: incidentally, my first thought here was a trump also, because I saw the club ruffs coming. It wasn't until I thought about partner's shape that I saw that he must have the DQ

edit2: there is a danger that declarer has a stiff diamond I guess. Then your diamond gets ruffed, ace and out a club, trump, he flies ace and ruffs 2 clubs (ruffing a diamond back for the 2nd club ruff). In this case, declarer's getting like 1 club, 2 club ruffs, 3 diamond ruffs, the ace of trumps, and the ace of hearts for 8 tricks, whereas a spade beats it sometimes.

edit3: but at MP you have to go for blood anyway, since +100 loses to all partscores your way. And if partner has 4 diamonds, looks like you are making 3 or 4 diamonds (losing a spade, a club, and a heart or 2 perhaps).

[vuroth]

Honestly, I think it's a tougher problem from east's side of the table. How many easts would win the queen and slam down a club on the table (assuming we led the 2♦) without so much as a thought.

[han]

How many? I hope none!