Defense to 6N

[pclayton]

Here's a great exercise for you. You defend 6N (LHO opened 1♣, 1♥ - 2N - 3♠ - 3N - 6N)

 

[hv=d=w&v=n&e=sq943haqj73dtcqjt&s=skt5h64dj987c8543]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

Pard leads the ♥9 and declarer wins the K in hand. Declarer plays the ♣ 6 to the Q (pard playing the 9 - standard signals).

 

Declarer leads the ♦10 off the board. You cover; declarer plays the K and pard wins the Ace. Pard exits a♣ won on the board.

 

Declarer will proceed to cash a total of 4 clubs in hand (pitching a spade from dummy) and 5 hearts on the board.

 

You will need to make 3 discards. What are they?

 

For extra credit, do you see how pard can improve on the defense here?

[HeartA]

Assuming 18-19 for his rebid of 2NT, what he has is SA, HK, DKQ, CAK that's 19 hcp.

Pd has SJ. I can discard one S and one D(9). I will hope pd has D6 and discard D7 and hope pd has D6.

 

Partner can make my job easy by returning a spade and driving out the entry to hand. If declarer cashes H first I can discard Club and then depending on the discards declarer made, I make my discard on clubs.

[inquiry]

Declarer has 11 tricks... 5H, 4C, 1D, and 1S (he must have heart ten -- lead, spade Ace and diamond queen (or partner would cash), and of course club AK since low club to dummy won (not to mention you said he takes 4 fo them).

 

Thus, if he has spade jack, you king will be hooked, so we give that to partner. We will have to keep the spade KT... and partner will have to have the diamond six-x. We want to throw all our diamonds away so that partner knows to keep. He knows you have to have the spade king, so he should come down to 2D and the spade jack, but he will be worried you don't have the spade ten...but he will have count on declarer, and will keep 2D only if declarer does. The pseudo squeeze could be avoided by ducking a diamond i guess, but his defense was fine winning it anyway i think.

 

(if declarer has Diamond Q6, it is a real squeeze now... if you keep two spades, he keeps 2D and spade A, if you keep two diamonds, he keeps Ax of spades and a diamond...so partner winning the Diamond Ace with diamond six requires you hold 987 to avoid the squeeze)

[cherdano]

Assuming 18-19 for his rebid of 2NT, what he has is SA, HK, DKQ, CAK that's 19 hcp.

Pd has SJ. I can discard one S and one D(9). I will hope pd has D6 and discard D7 and hope pd has D6.

 

Partner can make my job easy by returning a spade and driving out the entry to hand. If declarer cashes H first I can discard Club and then depending on the discards declarer made, I make my discard on clubs.

I would rather discard my diamonds as quickly as possible, before partner gets a chance to discard his... :)

[pclayton]

Assuming 18-19 for his rebid of 2NT, what he has is SA, HK, DKQ, CAK that's 19 hcp.

Pd has SJ.  I can discard one S and one D(9).  I will hope pd has D6 and discard D7 and hope pd has D6.

 

Partner can make my job easy by returning a spade and driving out the entry to hand.  If declarer cashes H first I can discard Club and then depending on the discards declarer made, I make my discard on clubs.

I would rather discard my diamonds as quickly as possible, before partner gets a chance to discard his... ;)

This is the general theme. Pard might think he needs to cling to say the Jxxx of spades (partners get lazy, face it) even though declarer would have 12 tricks; not to mention at least a 20 count for the 2N rebid.

 

Dump your diamonds like they are on fire! If declarer has the ♦6, you are toast anyway, so pard needs to know the importance of holding onto his (presumed) 6 spot. At the table, I pitched the 9, 8 and 7 in that order.

 

The complete hand:

[=West,None,IMP,Q943,AQJ73,T,QJT,KT5,64,J987,8543][/sOUTHEAST]

[hv=n=sjxxh98xxda652c9x&w=saxxhktdkq43cakxx&e=sq9xxhaqjxxdtcqjt&s=sktxhxxdj987c8xxx]399|300|[/hv]

 

Yes, partner can return a spade to break up the squeeze, but that would look silly if declarer had the ♠10. A better defense is another heart. This forces declarer to cash hearts first, instead of clubs, which wrecks the communications for the squeeze.

 

Alternately, partner can duck the ♦K.