What card do I return?

[vin1990]

I held

♠AQ63 ♥A8 ♦K876 ♣43

 

Oppoenents are in 4♥

.

Partner leads ♠2 playing 3/5 leads and usually low from an honor.

 

There are 2 spades and 4 hearts in dummy and dummy holds ♦AQx

 

You think that partner led from Ksp and must win the return and switch to a diamond before declarer can discard diamond losers on long clubs.

 

After winning with the ♠A what card do you return to hopefully suggest a diamond switch?

[655321]

Dummy's hand would be useful (the SouthWest, SouthEast, etc buttons that appear when you are making a post make this easy to do).

 

I would probably return my 4th best spade after winning the Ace (unless it looked right to play the ♠Q instead of the Ace at trick 1). Partner should be able to tell that the 3 means I started with 4 spades. This has no suit preference connotations at all.

 

Only if partner knows the distribution for sure (perhaps declarer's hand was relayed out during the auction) would I be able to return a spot card that had any suit preference implications.

[Mbodell]

It is really hard to tell without the full auction and dummy. Why can't partner have 5 spades to the J with declarer having the K? If partner has the A or K of clubs (and declarer the other) we may need to switch to a club now to setup partner's trick and possibly our ruff if partner can duck from Axx or has Kxx and declarer doesn't duck round 1.

 

I agree that if for reason of the auction we know for sure partner has the ♠K then the only question is do we need to be on lead or do we need partner to be on lead. If we need to be on lead and need to take 1 more spade trick before a club switch then play the ♠Q. If partner needs to be on lead play the spade 3 and hope that partner picks diamonds as the obvious switch. But usually the returned card gives count in the suit, not suit preference, except in obvious exceptions (you are giving a ruff, defense knows declarer's shape, etc.)

[vin1990]

Sorry I'm not good at making posts - think Ill quit while I'm behind.

 

 

Dummy was something like

 

♠xx ♥KJ10x ♣AQx ♦AQxx

 

The auction was

1♦-pass-1♥-pass

2♥-pass-4♥

 

In terms of leading a low spade this partner has a thing about not leading from Jxx(xx) unless theres no choice and usually leads low from strength.

[the hog]

S3 back

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

 

if you know, that partner has the king of spades, playing the

Queen instead of the Ace is clearly better.

Since declarer cant have the single king, playing the Queen

cant loose, at worst you give up a tempo.

 

I have 13HCP, king of spades are 3, dummy has 16

(only raises to 2H?), declarer will have 8 (?!).

=> Because of this, partner will have no other relevant

card for me, and he wont have shortage.

 

If the Queen wins, I play the Ace of spades, Ace of hearts

and a trump, and wait until the king of diamonds makes

the setting trick.

If declarer does not need the diamond finesse, there is

nothing I can do anyway.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe