Defense 1

[Guest Jlall]

[hv=e=sjt9xhkqt8daxc9xx&s=saxxxxhxxxdxxxcqj]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

1D by partner, 1S by you, 2C overcall on your left, 3C on your right, passed out. Partner leads the spade king, you encourage, and he continues another spade, LHO dropping the Q. Your play.

[whereagles]

Pard seems to be 2353 and could very well have a natural trump trick, so a spade doesn't seem good. I'll play the ♣Q.

[Apollo81]

diamond

[Finch]

We need a lot from partner to beat this.

A trump trick is necessary; if declarer has AKxxxx or AK10xx he has an easy 9 tricks whatever we do.

 

If declarer has the ace of hearts, he's almost certainly making on a diamond back: say he is 2236; he can win the DA, 3 rounds of hearts ditching a diamond; spade ditching a diamond and we make 2 trump tricks only.

 

So I think I need the HA opposite for a diamond back to be right - but that is given partner the SK, HA, DKJ and a club trick. Yes, he could have a 14-count but that's a very specific hand.

 

Parther could have Kx AJx(x) KJxx(x) 10xx but that's a very specific hand again, and give declarer a horrible pile of rubbish for the 2C bid (Qx xxx Qxx AKxxx). I'd rather assume declarer has 6 clubs which is more normal.

 

But now I've given partner the HA, I don't need him to have the DK if he has a high card trump trick: we just play a spade back and make 2 spades, 1 heart and 2 trumps.

 

Spade back.

[sathyab]

Partner needs the Ace of hearts for his opening and either KJ of Diamonds or a high club honor lacking any Diamond honors. I'd rule out a strong holding in Diamonds such as KQT or better as he'd have led that in preference to K from Kx of spades.

 

Shifting to a Diamond is the winning defense when partner has a natural trump trump trick such as Txx or an honor and a potential Diamond trick but with a holding that he can't attack Diamonds himself, which essentially means partner has KJ of Diamonds and Txx of clubs, he can't have KJ of Diamonds and a club honor if the 2c bidder has his bid.

 

On a spade continuation declarer can pitch only one of his red suit losers; but if partner's Diamond holding is strong enough to lead it himself after getting a spade ruff we can beat the contract with 2 spades, 1 heart, 1 diamond and one trump trick. On this lay-out a Diamond continuation lets the declarer make it. So I'm playing declarer for Qx xx JTx AKxxxx. Spade continuation also caters for hands where declarer has only a 5-bagger in clubs and a stronger diamond holding, as we now get 2 spades, 1 heart and two trump tricks.

 

I'm going with door #2.

[Guest Jlall]

but if partner's Diamond holding is strong enough to lead it himself after getting a spade ruff we can beat the contract with 2 spades, 1 heart, 1 diamond and one trump trick. On this lay-out a Diamond continuation lets the declarer make it. So I'm playing declarer for Qx xx JTx AKxxxx.

You know declarer is cold on any play in this layout right? (he just shakes a diamond when you lead a spade, wins the diamond continuation pulls trumps, crosses to the club 9 and pitches his other diamond on the spade).

 

But yeah a spade beats it if he has Qx xx KJx ATxxxx or similar.

[mikeh]

This is a guess, and not even a well-informed guess: we do not know, for example, the vulnerability into which declarer bid 2♣... at white v red, he is more likely to hold a pile of crap than if red or equal.

 

I am guessing to play a 3rd round of ♠s, giving up on a ♦ trick possibility and hoping for the ♥A and Ax, Kx, or stiff high honour in ♣s: 2♠s, 1♥ and 2 trump tricks

[pclayton]

I go for the promotion. I posted a long analysis why I thought a diamond was right, but I talked myself into a promote with ♣Kx or ♣Tx. :)

[Halo]

Trump promotion is the only clear cut tactic I have at this point.