Win or Lose the Match on the First Board?

[jchiu]

On the first day of real events in San Diego, you eschew the Life Master pairs to play the top bracket regional knockout. You see several big sponsors in your row [bracket]: Cayne, Mahaffey among others. Fortunately (or unfortunately), you did not draw one of those teams. On the first board you pick up (fourth in hand at unfavourable)

 

A52 KJ642 10652 3

 

The auction proceeds (by the opponents) 1D-1S; 3C-3S; 4S-P. You lead the C3 and see

 

Q94 A AQJ97 KJ87

 

The tricks proceed

 

C3-7-A-Q

C2-9-S2-8

D2-7-8-K

S3-

 

Do you agree with the diamond play at trick three, and what now?

 

Will you have a shot to draw one of the big teams for the evening?

[Jlall]

My take on this:

 

If RHO has 5 spades and Kxx of diamonds, his 3S bid is very bad.

 

If partner has stiff spade king and whatever in diamonds, playing the TWO of clubs when he has so many of them is very bad.

 

So the question is, who has done something very bad? I would have to know who my partner is and who the opps are. It is ok to protect partner if you know one of his faults is, for instance, being lazy about signalling in this type of situation. It is ok to take advantage of the opps bad bidding if you know they're bad, most people don't know how to bid in jump shift auctions at all.

 

Anyways, those are your options, figure out which one is more likely.

[pooltuna]

My take on this:

 

If RHO has 5 spades and Kxx of diamonds, his 3S bid is very bad.

 

If partner has stiff spade king and whatever in diamonds, playing the TWO of clubs when he has so many of them is very bad.

 

So the question is, who has done something very bad? I would have to know who my partner is and who the opps are. It is ok to protect partner if you know one of his faults is, for instance, being lazy about signalling in this type of situation. It is ok to take advantage of the opps bad bidding if you know they're bad, most people don't know how to bid in jump shift auctions at all.

 

Anyways, those are your options, figure out which one is more likely.

Partner may have played the 2♣ to protect your possible ♦K

[mcphee]

I am not going to insult partner who says he wants a D. Besides, if declarer holds 3C Q109 (possible although might be false) I need to grab my D before trump control is lost, you need to guard against declarer holding just 2D which looks like the deal here.

[ONEferBRID]

My thoughts FWIW....

I'm giving credit for Opps reaching the best contract.

They can chalk it up to bad luck if Declarer has:

 

K J T x x

x x x

K 4 3

Q 9

 

...since I'm going to return partner's suit preference after winning the 1st Rnd of ♠ .

5D doesn't do any better.... but worse.... nor 3NT.

 

I think the 3S rebid w/ a "good" 5 cds is OK, if partner is prone to make a SJS with a 5/4 shape and 17 count. Opener could raise with honor-doubleton.... but might be reluctant with x x .

[ArtK78]

If partner has a singleton diamond, he would not give you your ruff at trick 2. He can see 2 sure tricks - the ♣A and a (presumed) club ruff. To defeat 4♠, 2 more tricks are needed. Partner will assume that you have a quick trump trick. So, with a singleton diamond, he will return a diamond, not a club, at trick 2.

 

Since he did not return a diamond, he does not have a singleton diamond. He could have a void, but when you ruffed the club and played a diamond, he followed, so you can safely rule that out.

 

So, since partner does not have a singleton diamond, your only chance is that partner has a spade trick. You must duck the spade.

 

If partner had the ♠K, he could have solved the problem more elegantly by cashing it at trick 2 and then giving you your club ruff. But suppose he has Jx of spades. Declarer might play a spade to dummy's 9 and let partner score his J.

 

In any event, I think it is right to duck the spade. But it may be hard to think this through at the table in tempo.