[ahydra]

I thought this hand from the club this evening was quite instructive at showing the magic that defenders can pull off once they figure out the layout.

At matchpoints, you hold ♠K93 ♥Q76 ♦ J632 ♣Q98 and partner opens a weak NT (12-14) in first seat. RHO overcalls a natural 2C and it goes all pass.

Ugly lead, heh. But you settle for the ♥6 and see

♠A864
♥10852
♦K107
♣65

The first trick goes ♥6, 2, K, A. Now declarer plays ♣A, then the ♠J to the A and a club to the J, which you win.

Already we can make some inferences - why would declarer overtake the J of spades if he also had the Q? So the Queen is likely in partner's hand. And clearly the ♣K is in declarer's hand. But partner has 12-14, so where are her points? 5 of them are the ♥K and ♠Q, so she must have a bucketload of points in diamonds - the Ace and Queen (since you can see everything else). But that's only 11 points, so she must also hold the ♥J.

Armed with this information, consider what happens if you play diamonds. Sure, it looks good to play a diamond through the K to partner's known AQ - but this suit should be ringing "frozen suit" alarm bells in your head. If you do lead diamonds, declarer holding 9xx will score a trick in the suit (eg J-K-A-small; then the 10-9 team up against the Q). So best stay away from diamonds - they're not going anywhere anyway. Play the SK. Declarer ruffs, draws your trump (partner throwing a diamond) and now you know (more or less) the entire hand:

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The position is now

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Knowing is only half the battle though. Not playing diamonds was half the remainder - the rest is figuring out the correct defence when declarer plays a small heart. You know partner can win, but what happens? She'll play a spade back, then another heart comes which you win, and you're forced to open up diamonds. So you must win the ♥Q NOW. Play a spade, and when partner gets in with the ♥J she'll still have a spade to exit with. Declarer is forced to play diamonds himself, and partner now scores the diamond AQ and her last spade - one down and a well-earned top.

ahydra

[FrancesHinden]

Sorry to sound somewhat negative, but
(i) on the hand you have given, declarer can just run the D9 rather than exit in hearts. Declarer can also count points, and after your SK play knows the same as you about partner's high cards.
(ii) even without declarer having the D98, your partner was squeezed on the third round of clubs - if she kept the AQ9 of diamonds and Jx of hearts she had to discard a spade, and will get endplayed.
(iii) playing matchpoints, it's going to be fairly irrelevant whether you are +50 or -90, because you had +110 available in spades. At least +50 will tie with people misdefending 3C!

Declarer's misplayed the hand anyway, but not winning the ace of hearts at trick one, cashing the ace of clubs, and playing a heart back at once. However I realise declarers often misplay hands.

Having just written an article for a bridge magazine, I know exactly how hard it is to write hands that genuinely demonstrate the point you want to make.

[squealydan]

FrancesHinden, on 2012-September-01, 16:05, said:

Declarer's misplayed the hand anyway, by not winning the ace of hearts at trick one, cashing the ace of clubs, and playing a heart back at once. However I realise declarers often misplay hands.

My declarer play is generally rubbish, so could you please explain why is this the correct play?

[ahydra]

FrancesHinden, on 2012-September-01, 16:05, said:

Sorry to sound somewhat negative, but
(i) on the hand you have given, declarer can just run the D9 rather than exit in hearts. Declarer can also count points, and after your SK play knows the same as you about partner's high cards.
(ii) even without declarer having the D98, your partner was squeezed on the third round of clubs - if she kept the AQ9 of diamonds and Jx of hearts she had to discard a spade, and will get endplayed.
(iii) playing matchpoints, it's going to be fairly irrelevant whether you are +50 or -90, because you had +110 available in spades. At least +50 will tie with people misdefending 3C!

Declarer's misplayed the hand anyway, but not winning the ace of hearts at trick one, cashing the ace of clubs, and playing a heart back at once. However I realise declarers often misplay hands.

Having just written an article for a bridge magazine, I know exactly how hard it is to write hands that genuinely demonstrate the point you want to make.

All valid points - but you wouldn't want to misdefend and fail to punish declarer for his misplay

I changed the hand to add a bit of "drama". We were actually in 3C which is clearly cold off, the key was to get the 2nd undertrick to beat people in 3C-1. Despite the fact that you're not getting to spades after partner opens 1NT instead of 1S, on reflection perhaps I should have left the contract as 3C, because 3S is down. In fact 3C-2 would have been a top if three certain Wests had covered the DJ when defending 3S :/

(Also IRL partner did in fact discard a spade instead of a diamond on the 3rd round of clubs, so could have been endplayed like you say)

ahydra