Defend against 3NT

[Trumpace]

You are East (and dealer) and you hold AT76, JT7, KQT, T65.

 

N/S are vul.

 

Bidding goes (starting with you)

 

P - P - P - 2D*

P - 2H - P - 2NT**

P - 3NT -P - P

P

 

2D* : multi, is either weak major or semi strong with minor or natural 20-21 balanced hand.

2NT**: natural 20-21 balanced hand.

 

 

i) What would you lead?

 

ii) Suppose you decide to lead the ♥7

 

 

You see the following:

 

[hv=d=e&v=n&e=sat76hjt7dkqtct65&s=sj3h84dj7654ck432]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

(Note: South is dummy).

 

dummy plays the 4, partner the K and declarer wins the ♥A.

 

Declarer leads the ♦A (pard follows with 2) and then plays ♦9 diamond to your Q (pard follows with 8).

 

What now?

[Codo]

1. I had lead a spade. The 7 of heart had never occured to me....

 

2. Pd seems to have about 5 HCPs and I have seen 3 of them. So my goal is not to develop too mayn more it is more not to burn too many. I would like to cut declarer of from dummy, but for this, pd must have the Queen of spades and 3 Diamonds. In this case, declare can enter dummy just once in club.

So I try the ten of spades now.

[Fluffy]

♥7 is not on my dictionary. After leading it I'd try for a desperate ♠Q9x on partner's hand.

[pclayton]

♥7 is an odd lead, especially from a strong hand that needs to potentially unblock.

 

Pard has room for a black queen. Lets hope its the ♠. Declarer would have only 8 tricks at this juncture - ♠K we are giving him, 2♥'s, ♦A and 4♣'s.

 

The question is do we shift to a low spade or the A♠.

 

I don't think we can legitimately succeed if declarer has the K8xx, but he might win the 1st trick if we shift to a low one.

 

Its early, but I'm hard pressed to think of a position where the ♠A is necessary.

[Trumpace]

Yes ♥7 was weird :) , but if it was not led, you would not have this puzzle to solve :P

 

Question i) was mainly about which suit would you lead? Lead from AT7x or some other suit?

 

 

I don't think we can legitimately succeed if declarer has the K8xx, but he might win the 1st trick if we shift to a low one.

 

Why?

[pclayton]

Yes ♥7 was weird :) , but if it was not led, you would not have this puzzle to solve :P

 

Question i) was mainly about which suit would you lead? Lead from AT7x or some other suit?

 

 

I don't think we can legitimately succeed if declarer has the K8xx, but he might win the 1st trick if we shift to a low one.

 

Why?

If we lead low, declarer plays low, pard sticks on the 9 and declarer ducks. Pard continues the Q, King, ace. We have the 10-7 over declarer's 8-x but no way to get pard in.

 

Makes no difference if the 1st trick starts, J, Q, duck.

[Trumpace]

Yes ♥7 was weird :blink: , but if it was not led, you would not have this puzzle to solve :P 

 

Question i) was mainly about which suit would you lead? Lead from AT7x or some other suit?

 

 

I don't think we can legitimately succeed if declarer has the K8xx, but he might win the 1st trick if we shift to a low one.

 

Why?

If we lead low, declarer plays low, pard sticks on the 9 and declarer ducks. Pard continues the Q, King, ace. We have the 10-7 over declarer's 8-x but no way to get pard in.

 

Makes no difference if the 1st trick starts, J, Q, duck.

If declarer ducks a spade (giving us the two spade tricks + tempo), can't we switch back to hearts?

[pclayton]

Yes ♥7 was weird :blink: , but if it was not led, you would not have this puzzle to solve :P 

 

Question i) was mainly about which suit would you lead? Lead from AT7x or some other suit?

 

 

I don't think we can legitimately succeed if declarer has the K8xx, but he might win the 1st trick if we shift to a low one.

 

Why?

If we lead low, declarer plays low, pard sticks on the 9 and declarer ducks. Pard continues the Q, King, ace. We have the 10-7 over declarer's 8-x but no way to get pard in.

 

Makes no difference if the 1st trick starts, J, Q, duck.

If declarer ducks a spade (giving us the two spade tricks + tempo), can't we switch back to hearts?

Very true.

[ralph23]

You didn't say if we're playing standard carding (rightside-up C&A) or UDCA.

 

If upside-down, then partner has signalled that he started with 2 diamonds, and so I think we're in a world of hurt as defenders. Declarer then started with 3♦ and has the ♣King in dummy for an entry, and I don't think we can stop him from taking 3 ♦ tricks. So in this case, I might do something really desperate. But maybe not....

 

If rightside-up OTOH, then partner started with 3 and declarer started with a doubleton ♦, and the ♦3 is missing, and partner has it. Thus his second ♦ play -- an unnecessarily high one -- is a signal. Playing with my regular partner I would interpret it as showing strength in ♠. On the bidding, he (partner) must then have the ♠Queen (and declarer the King of ♠).

 

{nb -- I suppose it's possible for declarer to have fudged a bit with a 5-card club suit and bid this way with the ♠Queen instead, and partner has the ♠King and is so signalling, but I don't think I need to count on that.}

 

All I need to know is, that if we're playing rightside-up signals in the count, then the ♦ are dead. Declarer's out of ♦ now, and has just the ♣King as an entry to dummy. Partner has the ♠Jack guarded so declarer can't get there in ♠.

 

But I don't know which way we're signalling, so I can't decide. :blink:

Edited October 12, 2007 by ralph23

[Trumpace]

This is with a pickup and you have made no agreements with regard to signals..

 

Assume pard is just playing his lowest card each time.

[Fluffy]

To Phil and Trumpace: ♦KQ+♠9+♠A+♠10 coutns for 5 tricks.

And that's why leadig the 10 is wrong, what you cannot pick is ♠K9xx

[Trumpace]

To Phil and Trumpace: ♦KQ+♠9+♠A+♠10 coutns for 5 tricks.

And that's why leadig the 10 is wrong, what you cannot pick is ♠K9xx

You yourself said you will try for a desperation holding of Q9x with pard. Then why is leading the 10 wrong?

 

I like the lead of 10. On our low spade lead, if declarer plays low from dummy, I am not sure if pard will definitely play the 9. He might put up the Q.

 

Do you think that by leading the 10 we don't always get 3 spades?

 

Lead the 10. If declarer covers with J (which seems very likely with K8xx), pard plays Q and declarer wins. Now once your DK is knocked out, you lead a low spade to partners 9 and get a spade through declarer 8x into your A7.

 

If declarer ducks in dummy then pard must unblock the 9. I agree, this might be a difficult play to make for partner, but I think that it is very likely that Jack will be played. Once the 9 is unblocked, on winning DK you lead low to Q and low back to your A7.

 

Anyway, if you think pard will play the 9 on low spade lead, then low is better, but if you don't think that is the case, then playing 10 is better as it is seems likely that declarer will cover with the J. I think overall, playing 10 is better as it reduces pard's chances of going wrong (basically I think declarer covering with J is 100%, which might be incorrect thinking of course).

 

In the original hand, it did not matter as pard held Q9xx.