[han]

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Partner leads a small spade to dummy's 7, your queen and declarer's ace. Declarer then plays the club king which is for partner's ace. Partner now plays the heart king, won by the ace on the table while declarer follows small. A club is played to your queen, declarer's jack and partner's 9 (standard remaining count). How do you continue?

[mikeh]

han, on 2013-January-27, 09:45, said:

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Partner leads a small spade to dummy's 7, your queen and declarer's ace. Declarer then plays the club king which is for partner's ace. Partner now plays the heart king, won by the ace on the table while declarer follows small. A club is played to your queen, declarer's jack and partner's 9 (standard remaining count). How do you continue?

First Josh posts a tough defensive hand, now Han adds to our misery. I'm almost afraid to answer, since Han and I are planning to play in an upcoming Cayne match, and I'd rather he went in still harbouring illusions that I know how to defend.

There are all kinds of things to worry about here, one of which has to be who has the spade 10 and another is who has the last club?

I tend to place partner with the last club, if only because with KJx declarer had the option of playing me for any doubleton Q rather than giving us a possibly easy shot at 3 tricks in the suit...2 more than we'd get if I held Qx.

I can't be sure what's going on in hearts: partner should always switch to the heart K, regardless of his holding, including KJx.

AKJ10xx xx Kxx KJ, or AKJ10xx xx Axx KJ and we can make the hearts Jx if we want, and I think I need to cash a heart.

Then I think he is flat out down.

If I play a spade first he wins in dummy and pitches the heart. He is cold on top with the 2nd hand, and with the first, he should infer that partner holds the diamond A due to the lead, so will lead towards Jx.

If I play a diamond first, we can recover on hand one if partner allows us to cash a heart, but why put him under pressure? And hand 2, a diamond lets it through since our heart goes away.

I don't have any high level of confidence, but in real life one has to eventually stop worrying and make a play and this would be mine.

[han]

deleted

[gnasher]

I can't think of any hand that declarer can have where I agree with his line. On Mike's examples he had a legitimate chance of getting clubs right (not so difficult given the lead), but instead he played for us to mess up the defence. On the other hand, if I don't play him for that type of hand, we will, in fact, have messed up the defence.

[PhilKing]

mikeh, on 2013-January-27, 18:56, said:

I don't have any high level of confidence

Rightly or wrongly, I am feeling confident about playing a heart - I think declarer has your first construction.

If anyone is worried declarer has three clubs, don't be. That would give partner a 2♦ overcall.

[han]

North had

Jxx
KJx
KQxxx
Ax

and east

AK10xxx
x
Axx
KJx

Only a club return beats it.

Perhaps Philking would have overcalled with the north hand. North-souh were unfavorable and east was dealer. I like north's pass.

Gnasher, what do you think about the play and defense so far? I would not have led a trump with the north hand but it looks like it is the only lead that gave us a chance to beat the contract. In what sense have we messed up the defense, are you referring to the play of the heart king instead of a small heart? Or should north duck the first club?

[mikeh]

PhilKing, on 2013-January-29, 05:27, said:

Rightly or wrongly, I am feeling confident about playing a heart - I think declarer has your first construction.

If anyone is worried declarer has three clubs, don't be. That would give partner a 2♦ overcall.

I had thought about that as well, but it seemed to me that xxx KJx KQxxx Ax wouldn't be a good 2♦ overcall because of that spade holding and the lack of the diamond J/10. I mean, he might not even have the 9. So I didn't draw any inference. I really hate overcalling at the 2 level on short, internally weak suits and I don't much care for overcalling with xxx in opener's major: put them together and I rarely do it, and never vulnerable, in a minor...where it pays the opps to gamble out a reopening double on borderline holdings.

[gnasher]

han, on 2013-January-29, 08:07, said:

Gnasher, what do you think about the play and defense so far? I would not have led a trump with the north hand but it looks like it is the only lead that gave us a chance to beat the contract. In what sense have we messed up the defense, are you referring to the play of the heart king instead of a small heart? Or should north duck the first club?

I didn't mean that we'd already messed up the defence. I meant that
(1) If he had either of Mike's examples, he was playing for us to mess up the defence, and
(2) If he had either of Mike's examples, and I didn't play a heart now, he would have been right to play for that.