CayugaGuy

Jon: You hit on it - but your 'revoke' is unnecessary! You SHIFT to a diamond at trick 2 - HOPING declarer will think you are trying for a diamond ruff. The ONLY way he has to thwart this is to execute a LOSER-ON-LOSER play - so he plays A - K - J of spades. When you cover the Jack, he pitches his losing club - thereby losing to the SAFE opponent (you). Or so he thinks. But you now lead a FOURTH ROUND OF SPADES - and partner DISCARDS HIS SECOND DIAMOND. Now when you grab the trump ACE on the first round, you give PARTNER a DIAMOND RUFF!! Down one! :)

If you routinely engage in defenses that have no chance of succeeding, then the expert declarer really doesn;t have to put much thought into your defense plays, now does he/she? :) The expert will assume that you are trying to defeat the hand - and that you therefore hold a hand that in some way might reflect that possibility. Given ottawa's example hand, the spade queen is irrelevant to the defense and play, since declarer has no choices whatsoever. But to use that same defense with the example hand would be suicide. So declarer (an expert( is going to assume that you hold the spade queen - unless the hands are such that the location of the spade queen is irrelevant (as in ittawa's example). Who would an expert fret or concern themself over conditions that do not matter? Such as the example hand? In all hands WHERE THE DEFENSE MATTERS, they will place you with the Spade Queen. All other examples are meaningless. Just my .02.....

I am winning the first ♣ and switching to a ♦ and if declarer has A / JT987 / KQJ2 / 974 Down he goes ... and if he's Ax / JT987 / KQJ2 / xx He's got to find the ♠Q Um - No. If he has the first hand, he loses 2 clubs and a trump. If he has the second hand, why does he have to 'find' the spade queen? He knows you have it - and he has no spade loser in any event. No idea what you are talking about. There are hands with East, where he does not hold the ♠Q and the only correct defense is to shift to a ♦ at trick 2. For instance: Hand 1 show by jonottawa. I suggest you look at it again. Isn't not cashing the second club critical to defense and in fact the contract is down 1? Yes - jonottawa's defense works with his theorietical hand. Unfortunately, you do NOT have a singleton diamond - so your defense will not work, now will it? You do NOT hold jonottawa's theoretical hand - so his theoretical shift to the singleton diamond fails.

I am winning the first ♣ and switching to a ♦ and if declarer has A / JT987 / KQJ2 / 974 Down he goes ... and if he's Ax / JT987 / KQJ2 / xx He's got to find the ♠Q Um - No. If he has the first hand, he wins and drives out the trump Ace. Since you do NOT have a singleton diamond, you get no ruff. If he has the second hand, why does he have to 'find' the spade queen? He knows you have it - and he has no spade loser in any event.

Failure to play a second round of clubs DEFINITELY puts the spade Queen in YOUR hand. Otherwise, your shift to a diamond before taking the second club GIVES DECLARER A CHANCE TO FINESSE THE SPADE QUEEN (if it is missing) OR lets him pitch his losing club if HE has it. So your failure to cash the second club can only mean that YOU are looking at the 3rd round spade winner - since otherwise your shift would be foolish. It would give the contract away on a platter. But - and this is a hint - you WANT declarer to know you have the spade queen. The entire defense depends on it. :)

NO ONE is there yet: NO EXPERT DECLARER will play your partner for the finessable SPADE QUEEN if you fail to cash BOTH your club winners. Why would he think you would let him take a discard when all you have to do is cash them on the reel? Thus declarer KNOWS you have the SPADE QUEEN if you shift to a diamond. So, if declarer KNOWS you have the SPADE QUEEN (and he will if you shift to a diamond).......and thinks you will use partners club Q as an ENTRY - there *is* a defense that will work...... And it DOES involve a diamond shift. But HOW will this help? You are NOT going to ruff a diamond - nor (if you defend correctly) are you going to win 2 club tricks. (Note: You KNOW declarer must be 2-2 in the blacks - otherwise the hand is cold no matter what you do - since you either will win only 1 club trick - or declarer will ruff his losing club in dummy (or throw it on the spade K.)

I think all these 3♥ bidders are living in dream worlds. If EAST is a mediocre player, they hoave a diamond stopper. And after a heart lead and a shift to clubs to knock the ACE out of dummy, just how do you plan on makeing 3NT even if partner DOES have a ♥ stopper? I think 3♦ is the right bid here. Long, strong diamond suit - an outside car - but not enough to ensure 3NT if partner has a heart stopper.

[hv=n=skj8hkq4da10974c86&e=sq9652ha3d53caj53]266|200|[/hv] The BIDDING: SOUTH opens 1 HEART. NORTH bids 2 DIAMONDS. SOUTH raises to 3 DIAMONDS and NORTH closes the auction with 4 HEARTS. Partner leads the KING of CLUBS. South is an expert declarer. Do you see a legitimate way of defeating 4 HEARTS?