Defense problem

[jdonn]

Jx KQ9 987x AQxx

 

Auction starts on your left (your side passing throughout) 1♦ 1♥ 2♥ 4♥. Say you lead the 9 of diamonds and dummy comes down with

 

KQ9x Jxx AQJT xx

 

Maybe you wouldn't have bid 2♥ but that is neither here nor there. Your side plays udca and nothing else special in particular. Dummy wins the ace as declarer drops the king, partner playing the 6 of diamonds. Declarer leads a heart to the ten, partner playing the 4 (2 led from dummy, 3 not seen) and you win.

 

What do you do? What different cards of partners would have caused you to do something else?

[Free]

I'd continue ♦, don't see much else useful...

 

(I find the layout very annoying that dummy is beneath my hand, maybe because I'm just awake, but it's confusing)

[skjaeran]

The ♦6 tells nothing here. I might have been leading from a doubleton, so partner gives attitude to tell me who's got the king - he didn't know that would be known to me one moment later.

 

The ♦K is almost surely not a singleton, if so, declarer would most probably have discarded ♣'s before playing trumps.

 

To beat this, partner need to have the ♠A or the♣K (or trump ace, but I strongly doubt that - RHO probably wouldn't raise to game on an empty suit and partner would have raised and pushed a ♣ through) or have a singleton ♦.

 

I expect most people to give suit preference in the trump suit in this situation, but I can't read partner's card here. It could be from x4 or 43.

 

The ♠A won't go away on ordinary layouts, so I don't have to try to cash that now. The 2nd ♣ trick will go away (on dummy's ♠ and ♦), however. So I'll lay down the ♣A now. If partner encourage, I'll continue a ♣ to his king, if not I'll try to give him a ♦ ruff.

 

I have to do it now. Declarer will lay down the trump ace as soon as he get's on lead (I've got the nine, so there's no 2nd finesse coming) playing for my partner to hold a doubleton honour or me to have KQ tight, and go on cashing ♦'s and ♠'s.

[hotShot]

I can/have see 3 J's, 4Q's and and 3K's, you saw 28HCP and declarer should have about 9+ more of the missing 12. Partner can hardly have more than a 3 HCP, the only possible honor he could hold is one of ♣J or ♣K. He has a small chance to make ♠T, if opps try to take 4 rounds of them.

 

If opps have a fit in ♥ (declarer has 5+ cards), where is our fit?

 

If declarer has ♠AX(x)(x) his game plan should be to eliminate trump and drop dummies ♣ on his 4th and 5th ♥. This will make, if he has ♠T or partners ♠T will drop in the first 3 rounds.

 

It all boils down to the question does P have ♣K or not.

 

So I will play ♣A now and follow ♣ if partner encourages. If he's signing off, I will try the ♦ ruff instead.

[Guest Jlall]

The ♦6 tells nothing here. I might have been leading from a doubleton, so partner gives attitude to tell me who's got the king - he didn't know that would be known to me one moment later.

This is a very mature analysis imo, very nice.

[cherdano]

Btw, why did you lead ♦9 instead of the systemic (I suppose) 7?

[jdonn]

For the same reason I don't lead the "systemic" J from KQJx? :)

[skjaeran]

The ♦6 tells nothing here. I might have been leading from a doubleton, so partner gives attitude to tell me who's got the king - he didn't know that would be known to me one moment later.

This is a very mature analysis imo, very nice.

Thanks for the compliment, Justin.

 

I must confess I almost screwed up on that one initially, going to interpret it as count. The defence would be the same anyway.

 

But I agree it's a good point. You've got to stay focused and place yourself in partner's position and think through what information he's got when making a signal to be able to interpret it correctly.

[pclayton]

Btw, why did you lead ♦9 instead of the systemic (I suppose) 7?

I think I prefer the 9 from 987x but the 6 from 986x.

 

Partner's ♦6 is primarily attitude, and consistent with declarer's King. I would expect the 6 from 6x or 6xx or even 6xxx. I could drive myself crazy trying to figure out declarer why is showing me the King. The table knows I don't have it, and declarer may want to obscure from me that partner has K6.

 

The heart play to the 10 is telling. I'm putting declarer on ATxx or ATxxx. With AT8xx, Declarer plays a heart to the 8 and I think with AT87x, declarer runs the J, so I'm thinking partner has the ♥83. With ATxxx, declarer also has the option of playing me for Hx, but it seems declarer has a strong reason for keeping me off lead. As a result, I'm playing partner to hold the ♥8, and this is a strong clue pard is giving me SP for clubs here.

 

The diamond situation is unclear, although I don't think declarer has any of the following combos: Stiff K♦ with ♣xxx or ♠xxx (less clear because of the entry issues).

 

Declarer has shown up with ♥A and the ♦K, and only needs one of the black suit honors for his call. Can we beat the hand if declarer has both of the black suit honors? 4♦, 3♠ and 2♥ makes 9 if Declarer only 4 hearts, but if I held: Ax, ATxx Kxx Kxxx, wouldn't I be probing for the better of 3N vs 4♥? I also think declarer might have tried a heart toward the Jack initially, instead of a heart toward the A-T. Its evident I hold the ♦87, so I likely have more ♦ length and hence less ♥ length.

 

If Declarer is off the ♣King, with say, Ax, ATxxx, Kx, xxxx, it seems very normal to duck a heart to me and try for Hx on his right. Failing that, he can hope the hand with the 4th diamond holds the 3rd heart (as is the case) and take pitches. This plan works unless I get busy cashing out.

 

Note that its not good enough with declarer to try 3 spades, pitching a club, and then 4 diamonds, hoping the hand with 3 diamonds holds the 2nd heart. The defense could ruff, cross to the club ace, and play the 4th spade promoting a 3rd trump trick.

 

So I will make life easy for pard and lay down the ♣A. I don't want to give pard a headache wondering if I need a ♦ ruff.

[pclayton]

Note that its not good enough with declarer to try 3 spades, pitching a club, and then 4 diamonds, hoping the hand with 3 diamonds holds the 2nd heart. The defense could ruff, cross to the club ace, and play the 4th spade promoting a 3rd trump trick.

I thought more about this and it isn't quite right. Declarer can scissors the hand by playing the 4th spade and ditching the last ♣.

[han]

I was declarer and the 9 did make me think that you likely had a doubleton Josh :) .

[jdonn]

I was declarer and the 9 did make me think that you likely had a doubleton Josh :) .

Yeah, although I misdefended later the thought occured to me you would probably think I was short in diamonds and go wrong anyway hehe, so I always expected to have another chance.

[ulven]

I'll try the club ace and shift to spades if partner discourages.

[joshs]

Jx KQ9 987x AQxx

 

Auction starts on your left (your side passing throughout) 1♦ 1♥ 2♥ 4♥. Say you lead the 9 of diamonds and dummy comes down with

 

KQ9x Jxx AQJT xx

 

Maybe you wouldn't have bid 2♥ but that is neither here nor there. Your side plays udca and nothing else special in particular. Dummy wins the ace as declarer drops the king, partner playing the 6 of diamonds. Declarer leads a heart to the ten, partner playing the 4 (2 led from dummy, 3 not seen) and you win.

 

What do you do? What different cards of partners would have caused you to do something else?

I am pretty much laying down the CA under the assumption that the opps know what they are doing. If they systematically raise on that hand, then declarer has 5 hearts. That gives him 3 heart tricks, 4 diamonds tricks and 3 spade tricks if he has the ace unless I take 2 non trump tricks first.

 

I actually expect partner to have the CK from the discouraging signal at trick 1 (ok perhaps there is a case that the signal should be count, or even suit preference here, but it doesn't fit into my usual rules. At the point he signaled he could, at least in theory, have the K, so its attitude in my regular partnerships.)