[Cyberyeti]

Matchpoints

---

Partner leads ♦9 which by agreement shows a holding headed by H98

This goes 10 Q 2

You opt to cash ♦A 6 4 5

YOur agreement is that overcalls are very sound particularly at the 2 level.

NOw what and why ?

[AL78]

I would question why partner thinks a jack high suit constitutes a very sound two level overcall and I come to the conclusion there is a lot of distribution flying around and partner must have a few HCP tricks outside the diamond suit. I think partner is 1165 or 1264 with club strength so if partner has ♠A stiff to make up HCP strength to compensate for the poor suit, I would switch to a high spade spot card. My hope is partner will win, switch to a diamond and we can give partner a spade ruff. Alternatively, if partner as a small singleton, he has the heart ace and another so can similarly win when declarer plays on hearts, play a diamond to me and a spade switch gives partner a ruff. I'm thinking declarer is 5521 or 5620 although in the former case they should have opened 1♠ so I am probably wrong with my thinking (although it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a player open 1♥ holding 55 in the majors).

[jillybean]

I have to guess which black suit partner has his honors, I don't know, is it simply a guess?
If you are playing sound overcalls and your partner has bid 2♦ with J empty he must be 6-5 distribution
Since partner had a spade bid at the 3 level available, my guess is that he has the minors, I switch to a club.

[Cyberyeti]

jillybean, on 2023-December-06, 06:58, said:

I have to guess which black suit partner has his honors, I don't know, is it simply a guess?
If you are playing sound overcalls and your partner has bid 2♦ with J empty he must be 6-5 distribution
Since partner had a spade bid at the 3 level available, my guess is that he has the minors, I switch to a club.

If partner is 6=5 he has ♣ AKQXX and didn't lead one

Also your double theoretically shows both suits, so partner could have bid clubs.

[Cyberyeti]

AL78, on 2023-December-06, 06:56, said:

I would question why partner thinks a jack high suit constitutes a very sound two level overcall and I come to the conclusion there is a lot of distribution flying around and partner must have a few HCP tricks outside the diamond suit. I think partner is 1165 or 1264 with club strength so if partner has ♠A stiff to make up HCP strength to compensate for the poor suit, I would switch to a high spade spot card. My hope is partner will win, switch to a diamond and we can give partner a spade ruff. Alternatively, if partner as a small singleton, he has the heart ace and another so can similarly win when declarer plays on hearts, play a diamond to me and a spade switch gives partner a ruff. I'm thinking declarer is 5521 or 5620 although in the former case they should have opened 1♠ so I am probably wrong with my thinking (although it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a player open 1♥ holding 55 in the majors).

The reason that he thinks a jack high suit is sufficient is because he has 6 and a number of black honours, your ruff is getting overruffed, I think you can work this out.

[mikeh]

This is an interesting hand. I’ve tried to approach it as I would at the table. When I’m playing well (within the context of the limitations on my ability) I tend to be quite slow. What follows is my best attempt to lay out my thinking process. Better defenders than I would have similar but possibly better ideas. I hope the length of this post helps rather than hinders advancing players.

The auction gives us quite a bit of information and the first thing we should do is to review the auction in light of dummy and the play to the first two tricks.

We showed values and either both blacks or spades with reasonable diamonds (planning to correct clubs to diamonds if need be).

Partner clearly has 6 diamonds…if he overcalled on J98xx, then our partnership is unlikely to last much longer.

What didn’t he do?

He didn’t bid 3S. Surely 4=1=6=2, with good black suits, doesn’t sell to 3H? At favourable, at mps?

So he probably has 2-3 spades.

He can’t have a stiff spade. He’d be 1=1=6=5 and still be bidding after my double

He can’t be 1=2=6=4 since that makes opener 5=5=2=1 and he’d never bid 1H, let alone 3H.

So he’s probably 3=1=6=3 or 2=1=6=4. Note that I’m inferring that opener has 6 hearts…It depends on my opps.

Ok, so much for inferences from the bidding. What have we learned from the play?

Partner made what would likely seem to be at best a neutral lead and sometimes a dangerous one. Plus we showed length, and usually some values, in the blacks, but he didn’t lead either suit.

So I don’t think he has an AK black suit. Nor is it likely that he has a KQx black suit…such a holding should have appeared attractive on the auction.

Next clue: he played the diamond 3 on trick 2. He then had J8732 and could have played any of them at no cost within the suit. No good player would be signalling count once declarer follows. He knows that I know he has 6… no regular partner of mine would ever overcall on J9873, not to mention that I haven’t seen the deuce yet.

So he’s suggesting but not screaming for a club.

I admit to having trouble seeing how it won’t even out but for now I’m thinking club.

If partner is 3=1=6=3, which I think is the single most likely shape but by no means the only shape, then declarer is 3=6=2=2. A spade pitch on the diamond king does him no good, but a club pitch surely does.

Maybe declarer has Kxx AKxxxx xx Kx.

Unfortunately that’s a holding where we can’t do everything…club to the queen, diamond to kill the pitch, declarer overruffs, pulls trump and exits a club.

Axx AKxxxx xx Kx? Same thing…club won by partner, kill the pitch, declarer exits a club, getting two pitches. It doesn’t help to switch to a spade rather than kill the diamond king…now declarer pitches his club king. Plus partner might have led the spade King from KQx.

It’s this sort of process that leads (at least it leads me) into one of those enormous tanks at the table. I’ve just worked out both why I need to play clubs and why it’s ultimately irrelevant on the holdings I’m picturing. So I’d start the visualization again, looking for another plausible layout on which there’s either more justification for clubs or a spade may be better.

What about AQx x Jxxxxxx AQx. Declarer is Kxx AKQxxx xx Kx

If I held J10xxx in spades, my ox over there wants me to lead the spade Jack…if it holds, I play clubs. If it’s covered, he wins and underleads the queen for a club play.

Of course, I don’t hold the spade J10…but, and this is important, he doesn’t know that. One difficult skill is to try to see how the hand might have looked to partner at any critical moment. It helps, of course, to have a really good partner😀

Were his spades not as good, he’d scream for clubs, but his 3 merely says ‘I have good clubs but, as you should have inferred, I have spades as well..do what seems best’

I can’t come up with a layout where we beat this two tricks. Partner shouldn’t hold a black AK…say AQx x Jxxxxx AKx….he’d scream spades, and in no way suggest clubs. And with AKx x Jxxxxx AQx he’d scream clubs, not merely suggest them. Plus he’d have led his AK anyway.

Finally (I can hear the reader’s sigh of relief from here) partner might be Ax x Jxxxxx AQxx. With declarer now 4=6=2=1, we need to take our club or kill the diamonds. Or both. AQ x Jxxxxx AQxx, we’re safe on a club back…kill the diamond and opener can’t avoid two spade losers.

So I lead a club, expecting -1.

[Cyberyeti]

Mike analyses it deeply, but misses one thing, he actually picks the correct hand AQx, x, J98xxx, AQx, but club switch is no good. Assess your matchpoint contract, you are making 10 tricks in spades, 11 if you don't get the right lead. Therefore you need 200.

Spade switch, partner cashes 2 then leads a diamond ruffed and overruffed and you still have 2 clubs to come, our arrangement on the signals is that the 4 with me also holding the 3 is basically no preference.

The problem with a club is that whatever partner does now, declarer will force out the other club and pitch spades on the ♣J10 so you have to cash the ♠A for -1 and only 2 matchpoints, 200 is an average as there is one 590, one -50 and all the other scores are 200 in play or defence.

[mikeh]

That’s embarrassing😀 maybe I’d have got it right at the table….writing a long post tends to get me derailed, but (obviously) I ought not to have made that bonehead error

Without attempting to justify the mistake, I do think that partner made as bad a play as I did, when he played that cute diamond 3. What if he’d had KQx x Jxxxxx AQx? Now we need the club switch. That’s no excuse for me….as I argued, his diamond lead ought to deny a black KQx holding, so the club was playing him for a weird lead. However, he knows beyond doubt that we have at most two spade tricks and, most importantly, that giving declarer a spade trick (say he had KJ10) does him zero good. Iow, he ought at least to play the diamond 8. Doesn’t make my mistake less of an error, but does mean that we share the blame.

Btw, I’d not worry about missing 4S. I don’t see how one can get there, and while 3S is 170, I don’t think getting there is that easy. However, even ignoring that, 200 is a heck of a lot better than 100.

[Cyberyeti]

mikeh, on 2023-December-06, 14:55, said:

That’s embarrassing😀 maybe I’d have got it right at the table….writing a long post tends to get me derailed, but (obviously) I ought not to have made that bonehead error

Without attempting to justify the mistake, I do think that partner made as bad a play as I did, when he played that cute diamond 3. What if he’d had KQx x Jxxxxx AQx? Now we need the club switch. That’s no excuse for me….as I argued, his diamond lead ought to deny a black KQx holding, so the club was playing him for a weird lead. However, he knows beyond doubt that we have at most two spade tricks and, most importantly, that giving declarer a spade trick (say he had KJ10) does him zero good. Iow, he ought at least to play the diamond 8. Doesn’t make my mistake less of an error, but does mean that we share the blame.

Btw, I’d not worry about missing 4S. I don’t see how one can get there, and while 3S is 170, I don’t think getting there is that easy. However, even ignoring that, 200 is a heck of a lot better than 100.

He didn't play the 3 he played the 4 retaining the 3. This was me and I wasn't 100% sure partner didn't have a black K which is why I suggested equivalence.

3♠ is 200 barring the lead of ♣K and certainly made 200 when it was played

[mikeh]

Cyberyeti, on 2023-December-06, 15:20, said:

He didn't play the 3 he played the 4 retaining the 3. This was me and I wasn't 100% sure partner didn't have a black K which is why I suggested equivalence.

3♠ is 200 barring the lead of ♣K and certainly made 200 when it was played

That’s a distinction without a difference. Not signalling for a spade was very bad. If your expected him to have a black king, someone ought to have kept bidding your way. When I say ‘very bad’ I’m not saying that a club from partner was any better..just both made bad plays….and how on earth could his holding a black king make any difference?

If it’s in spades, it’s worth nothing on defence. If it’s on clubs, it’s not going anywhere on a spade to you, then a diamond.