How bad was my defence?

[nige1]

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These are all simple defensive decisions that I handled unsuccessfully. Please allocate marks out of ten to the choices that you consider.

1. At teams, you are West, on lead against South's 4♥. You lead ♣K, T, 7, 2 (Your normal agreement is king for count but McKenny with a singleton in dummy (a middle card encourages). What do you lead at trick two? ♠A, ♠6, ♥6, ♦J, ♦6, or ♣Q.[/hv][hv=pc=n&w=st72hat63dj2ckj53&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1sp2hp2np3nppp]133|200|

2. At matchpointed Pairs, you are West, on lead against South's 3N. Your choice ♠2, ♥3, ♦J or ♣3?[/hv][hv=pc=n&n=sq652h643djt3caj5&e=skt3haj5dk862ck73&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=ppp1dp1hpp1ndppp]266|200|

3. In a teams match, you are East, defending South's 1NX.

♥9, ♥3, ♥A, ♥T.

♥J, ♥K, ♥2, ♥4.

♦4, ♦9, ♦T, ♦K.

♥5, ♣4, ♥7, ♥6.

♥Q, ♣6, ♣7, ♣5.

♥8, ♣J, ??

Your ♣7 was reverse attitude with McKenny overtones. What do you discard now? ♠3 ♣3, or ♦2.[/hv] [hv=pc=n&w=sq543hkj4dqt54c76&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1cp1dp1np2dp2hp2sp2np3nppp]133|200|

4. The 1♦, 2♥ and 2♠ bids are natural. 2♦ is artificial GF checkback. At matchpointed pairs, you, West, are on lead against South's 3N. Your choice ♠, ♥, ♦, ♣?[/hv][hv=pc=n&w=sa5hq32da6432c532&n=sqj3ha754dqtcqt84&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1dp1hp1np3nppp]266|200|

5. Match-pointed pairs. You are West and decide to lead a club against South's 3N.

♣3, ♣T, ♣J, ♣K.

♦Q, ♦8, ♦7, ♦4.

♦T, ♦5, ♦K, ♦2.

♦J, ♦A, ♥4, ♠7.

Your discards are reverse attitude with Mckenny overtones. You also play reverse Smith (peter for a switch). Your lead?[/hv]

Edited October 27, 2011 by nige1

[phil_20686]

On the first board I would continue a club. The most likely way you can win here is by cutting him off from the spade suit: Suppose south is 3-5-1-4 somethig like Jxx AQxxx K xxxx, You play a top club, declarer cannot prevent you from cutting him off from dummy: Suppose he plays as diamond now, partner wins the ace and plays a third round of clubs, now if he draws trump you can cash A s and a second club, Its true that he can ruff 3 hearts in this layout, but that involves guessing the trump position (should you ruiff high for a 2-2 break or cash K and ruff low for a 3-1 break), and there is no way to Guess the trumps if declarer does not have the heart Q.

 

Of course declarer could be 3-6-1-3, but in that case it is basically either cold or cold off depending on whether he can play the spades for one loser. In this case a club is needed anyway to prevent a squeeze when declarers clubs are 9xx. Though in fairness he is unlikely to play for this.

 

 

Giving up on declarer misplaying the spades with Jxx (can lose to doubleton 9 if you cover the J witht he Q- must guess whether the spades are Q9x-Ax or AQx-9x). by playing a spade hoping for a spade ruff seems like the wrong choice to me.

 

 

On the second problem I would lead a club.

 

On the third problem it is complex again. I think a spade pitch is right, if partner continues a club you just have to ditch the K under the ace to insure you have an exit card. Sout could easily be Ax kx AQxxx Txxx, but he will not have the club Q or he could have tried an early club to the J.

[nige1]

Problem 1: the contract was 4♥ (not 4♠) - corrected above - sorry.

Added Problems 4 and 5

[bigbenvic]

On the first board he has 10 tricks if phil's defence happens. He makes 4 club ruffs, (kh on the 4th round) 5 tricks in hand and the spade K for 10. If he's 3613 with a red Ace he has 6 reds, a spade, and 3 ruffs of clubs (partner can't lead a 2nd trump when in)

Will partner ever have 5♦ only? if yes then we may have A♣, A♠ and 2♦ to take? That seems unlikely so to beat this S has to have 5♥ 1♦ and 6 black cards, could he have 4♠ and 2♣? probably not, if he's 3/3 then trump lead, if partner win the ♦ - trump from him, cuts souths ruffs down, JS in partners hand would beat it.

So either part has Jxx ♠ and A♦ or he has a stiff spade, I'm not playing south for 4513 as parter would have 1273 so I switch a trump.

 

Second board I'm either leading a Heart or a Club, spades are breaking for declarer, who's prob 5233, need partner to have Q♣ or A♣ for it to be right, need KJ♥, KQ♥ or QJ♥ for them to be right. I lead a club, but it's close.

 

Agree with phil on the third, I pitch a spade.

 

The fourth one I lead a spade and hate myself. He could be 3433 in which case a club is prob right. he could be 2434 and a club may help him. Hmmm it's nothing he can't do anyway so maybe a passive club lead works better, yep changed my mind I lead a club (and hate myself)

 

The last doesn't make sense as 10♦ is played on the third round of ♦ yet it is QT tight in dummy??

[nige1]

The last doesn't make sense as 10♦ is played on the third round of ♦ yet it is QT tight in dummy??

Mistake. Transposed ♦T and ♦J in the play. Sorry. Corrected in OP. At trick two, declarer played Dummy's ♦Q. At trick three, he overtook dummy's ♦T. At trick four, he continued ♦.

[bigbenvic]

Cool, on the 3rd ♦ part pitches the 7♠, there are 3 ♠ missing lower, I'd love to know if Declarer bids 1♠ or 1nt with 4♠ however it's likely that pards has one of them, so he doesn't want a ♠ and hints at a ♥ maybe. The 8,9 or 10 would be better.

If you exit a D to set up your fifth, declarer may run ♣, knock out your A♠ take 2 more ♠ and the A♥ you get 2♦ A♠ and a ♥ at the end.

If you switch to a ♥, hoping for declarer to be Kxx Jxx KJ9x AKx or Kxxx Jx KJ9x AKx or even Kxxx Jxx KJ9x Ax, if declarer ducks a ♥ to partner, and he continues and declarer ducks again (I win q♥), I switch back to ♦ to set up my fifth one (while I have the A♠ that works, also works if partner has KJx♥ or Kxxx♥

Or I could have made a great lead, and partner wants a ♣ with AJ9x and a ♣ from me again (♠ from pards and a 3rd ♣ beats the contract) declarer being Kxxx Kxx KJ9x Kx

 

Which is more likely? Why the 7♠ I think at the table I'm playing partner for hearts but I'm not confident.

[phil_20686]

On the first board he has 10 tricks if phil's defence happens. He makes 4 club ruffs, (kh on the 4th round) 5 tricks in hand and the spade K for 10. If he's 3613 with a red Ace he has 6 reds, a spade, and 3 ruffs of clubs (partner can't lead a 2nd trump when in)

Will partner ever have 5♦ only? if yes then we may have A♣, A♠ and 2♦ to take? That seems unlikely so to beat this S has to have 5♥ 1♦ and 6 black cards, could he have 4♠ and 2♣? probably not, if he's 3/3 then trump lead, if partner win the ♦ - trump from him, cuts souths ruffs down, JS in partners hand would beat it.

So either part has Jxx ♠ and A♦ or he has a stiff spade, I'm not playing south for 4513 as parter would have 1273 so I switch a trump.

 

He cannot ever take more than 3 club ruffs, and that only if he ruffs the 4th club with the K.

 

Moreover, if he has 5!h and 1D, be must have 7 black cards, not 6.

 

 

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If this is the layout, and you switch to a trump, you have taken away his losing option, and forced him to play on spades rather than ruff clubs. Playing for 4-4 clubs might not seem that tempting, but neither is playing for 2-2 hearts, if QS in the slot is the best line there is nothing really to be done. With hearts 2-2 you cannot ever prevent him from winning.

 

IF partner has the J of spades your defence is basically irrelevant provided that south has at least 3 spades - he has no where to ditch his losing spades.

 

One layout I did not consider originally is that south has two spades but no diamond to lose, however if he has AD and xxx spades he will win the trump switch in hand and play a spade up, again you cannot defeat the contract.

 

Pretty much any hand where Declarer has A to 6 hearts is irrelevant, as he will always be able to ruff his clubs, and the defence hinges on his having two spade losers. As far as I can see a trump switch can never gain - declarer will never want or need to ruff 3 clubs. If he has 4 clubs and 2/3 spades he must play on spades at some point anyway, and then he will be able to pitch a losing club, moreover if partner has Qx hearts, a trump switch is terrible.

 

A club continuation is actually a better play in most hands where declarer is ruffing clubs, as it will give him the losing choice of attempting to ruff 3, playing partner for 3-1-6-3. If declarer has the T9!s ruffing the third round as a "finesse" with the 8 might be attractive.

 

The only hands I can construct that needs any defence other than a top club is to switch to a low spade, in case partner is xx Ax KQxxxx xxx, but this means that declarer has bid like a *******, ofc, I am assuming that partner is a 100% to have 6 diamonds, if he could have 5 then i might need a diamond switch. Or to switch to the ace of spades in case partner has a singleton.

 

TBH, switching to ace and another spade might well be your best chance to beat the contract, as most hands where you can beat this rely on declarer having bid absurdly.

[phil_20686]

Cool, on the 3rd ♦ part pitches the 7♠, there are 3 ♠ missing lower, I'd love to know if Declarer bids 1♠ or 1nt with 4♠ however it's likely that pards has one of them, so he doesn't want a ♠ and hints at a ♥ maybe. The 8,9 or 10 would be better.

If you exit a D to set up your fifth, declarer may run ♣, knock out your A♠ take 2 more ♠ and the A♥ you get 2♦ A♠ and a ♥ at the end.

If you switch to a ♥, hoping for declarer to be Kxx Jxx KJ9x AKx or Kxxx Jx KJ9x AKx or even Kxxx Jxx KJ9x Ax, if declarer ducks a ♥ to partner, and he continues and declarer ducks again (I win q♥), I switch back to ♦ to set up my fifth one (while I have the A♠ that works, also works if partner has KJx♥ or Kxxx♥

Or I could have made a great lead, and partner wants a ♣ with AJ9x and a ♣ from me again (♠ from pards and a 3rd ♣ beats the contract) declarer being Kxxx Kxx KJ9x Kx

 

Which is more likely? Why the 7♠ I think at the table I'm playing partner for hearts but I'm not confident.

 

Your signalling methods leave something to be desired Nigel :) - since a low spade might be spades or might be clubs, and a high spade might be hearts or might be clubs, I am not exactly enlightened :) - does feel like a smith peters in the diamond suit might have cleared things up a lot.

 

The first of ben's example hands leaves 3N cold - if dec is Kxx Jxx KJ9x Akx (not only does he have a strong nT) but ducking two rounds of hearts and playing a spade makes 9 tricks, losing 2h 1S 1D only. Its between a heart and a club, can we infer anything from declarers play at trick one? Would you play the TC with Kxx in hand? I'm not sure. At any rate, it feels right to continue a club, too often a heart will just give away random overs in a cold one. Club can win if partner has AJ9x, and that would give declarer a perfectly respectable Kxxx KJx KJ9x Kx. A heart lead loses when dec has KJx and KT9 of hearts.

 

It does feel like you should have asked if they raise freely with 3!h.

[nige1]

Your signalling methods leave something to be desired Nigel :) - since a low spade might be spades or might be clubs, and a high spade might be hearts or might be clubs, I am not exactly enlightened :) - does feel like a smith peters in the diamond suit might have cleared things up a lot.

We do play reverse Smith (Peter for a switch). Added to OP.

[phil_20686]

I cannot really read the 7 of spades as a signal.

 

With the Smith i wont continue a club. This is looking more and more like it is just cold - if declarer has AKx or AKxx clubs he has 4 clubs 3 D and the A of hearts in the bag, Assuming declarer is a good player, he should not have the SK, as sthen it would be right to play Ks after the second round of diamonds held. If Partner has the K of spades I can always beat this whenever it can be beaten by playing a diamond back now. Then I rise with the A of spades on the first round cash my winning diamond and play a heart through. This is also the right defence when declarer has JTx hearts, and when dec has the HK we at least get the 4 tricks that are rightfully ours.

[nige1]

[hv=pc=n&w=saq6h65dj76cakqj3&n=skt873hk832d854ct&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=2d2h3h4hppp]266|210| Thank you for your comments. FWIW, here is what works.

1. At teams, you are West, on lead against South's 4♥. You lead ♣K, T, 7, 2 (Your agreement with a singleton in dummy is McKenny (a middle card encourages). What do you lead at trick two? ♠A, ♠6, ♥6, ♦J, ♦6, or ♣Q.

 

I could avoid this problem by bidding a minor game (which makes) .I continued ♠A and another :( Anything else succeeds as partner held

♠ xx ♥ xx ♦ AKQxx ♣ 9876.

 

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2. At matchpointed pairs, you are West, on lead against South's 3N. Your choice ♠2, ♥3, ♦J or ♣3?

 

I led a ♣ but declarer had four. Partner prefers ♦J which would have worked better.

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3. In a teams match, you are East, defending South's 1NX.

♥9, ♥3, ♥A, ♥T.

♥J, ♥K, ♥2, ♥4.

♦4, ♦9, ♦T, ♦K.

♥5, ♣4, ♥7, ♥6.

♥Q, ♣6, ♣7, ♣5.

♥8, ♣J, ??

Your ♣7 was reverse attitude with McKenny overtones. What do you discard now? ♠3 ♣3, or ♦2.

 

I chucked a ♠ and a defensive trick :( Partner held

♠ AJxx ♥ K987x ♦ 9 ♣ Qxx.

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4. The 1♦, 2♥ and 2♠ bids are natural. 2♦ is artificial GF checkback. At matchpointed pairs, you, West, are on lead against South's 3N. Your choice ♠, ♥, ♦, ♣?

 

I led a ♣ but again declarer had four. This does not seem to be an interesting problem. On all these hands, however, partner thinks I made a clear-cut mistake and wants me to solicit expert-opinion.

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5. Match-pointed pairs. You are West and decide to lead a club against South's 3N.

♣3, ♣T, ♣J, ♣K.

♦Q, ♦8, ♦7, ♦4.

♦T, ♦5, ♦K, ♦2.

♦J, ♦A, ♥4, ♠7.

Your discards are reverse attitude with Mckenny overtones. You also play reverse Smith (peter for a switch). Your lead?

 

After I ducked the second ♦, as phil_20686 points out, declarer can make by switching to ♠. But when I won the third ♦, I had another chance. Bigbenvic would switch successfully to a ♥. Unfortunately, I returned a ♦, instead. Here partner holds

♠ 97xxx ♥ KJT5 ♦ xx ♣ Jx [/hv]

[phil_20686]

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So as I see it these were the original hand and the position when partner played the last heart. Given the bidding and the play in the diamond suit he can easily envisage souths hand - why didnt he play the J of spades earlier to guard against this position? He has absolutely no reason to play the fifth heart and put you into the grinder. If south has the K of spades he would hardly be pitching clubs from the dummy which would just mean he will go off trivially when KQx(xx) clubs was onside and he had spades stoped to cash his diamonds anyway.

 

Cashing the fifth heart with this hand is really poor MP defence IMO.

[phil_20686]

In summary:

 

On BD one you took quite a normal imps defense of spade and another (it can concede over tricks though so not my preferred defence at MP). I think this is a mistake, but your partner has bid like a *****. Openeing first in a wk 2 on 5422 and a defensive hand is just asking for this kind of thing. Incidentally, if you are playing for spade ruffs you should play a diamond and then partner will return a spade with a stiff or a doubleton and a trump trick. I think we can call this an error on your part. However, you were also somewhat done by the fact that declarer has bid like a lunatic. Jxx AQxxx xx xxx is not a 2 level vul overcall. Lets not fail to point out that you are completely cold for 5m on this hand - which is 100% your partners fault IMO. He bullied them into entering the auction when you probably would ahve had it to yourselves if he had passed.

 

Bd 2, you made a normal lead, which is somewhat risky but all leads are risky. A Diamond lead is absurd imo, if I were looking for something less risky at MP I would try 6H hoping to either decieve declarer about whether its right to play on hearts, or to just be passive.

 

Bd (3) Your partner defended badly and then blamed you for not being omniscient. However, it occurs to me that we all could have forseen that diamond pitches will never cost, am 100% sure I would have discarded diamonds at the table on the principle of delaying the decision. Not sure why I missed that above.

 

Bd (4) Any lead can work. I like to lead a spade on these auctions because it is right more often than you would think. You know declarer has 4 clubs, and you ahev too many entries to be looking to set up partners suit, but every lead here has the potential to throw away tricks.

 

Bd (5) I think it might have been an error to led the second diamond hold. It definitely feels like an error to win the third diamond and play a heart. If you are going to play a heart you need to win the second diamond as you are only getting a third diamond when south has a heart honour rather than a spade honour.

[nige1]

On BD one you took quite a normal imps defense of spade and another (it can concede over tricks though so not my preferred defence at MP). I think this is a mistake, but your partner has bid like a *****. Openeing first in a wk 2 on 5422 and a defensive hand is just asking for this kind of thing. Incidentally, if you are playing for spade ruffs you should play a diamond and then partner will return a spade with a stiff or a doubleton and a trump trick. I think we can call this an error on your part. However, you were also somewhat done by the fact that declarer has bid like a lunatic. Jxx AQxxx xx xxx is not a 2 level vul overcall. Lets not fail to point out that you are completely cold for 5m on this hand - which is 100% your partners fault IMO. He bullied them into entering the auction when you probably would h\ve had it to yourselves if he had passed.

I think partner's 2♦ opener is OK. Partner made the same point that phil_20686 makes: that a ♦ lead would also work if partner has a singleton ♠. For the ♠A to be necessary, declarer needs 10 or 11 cards in the majors.

 

Bd 2, you made a normal lead, which is somewhat risky but all leads are risky. A Diamond lead is absurd imo, if I were looking for something less risky at MP I would try 6H hoping to either decieve declarer about whether its right to play on hearts, or to just be passive.

I think lead problems like bidding problems are usually a matter of judgement that even experts will argue over.

 

Bd (3) Your partner defended badly and then blamed you for not being omniscient. However, it occurs to me that we all could have forseen that diamond pitches will never cost, am 100% sure I would have discarded diamonds at the table on the principle of delaying the decision. Not sure why I missed that above.

I should have discarded a ♦ not a ♠ but unlike phil-20686, I find the correct defence easier when presented as a problem on paper than at the table.

 

Bd (4) Any lead can work. I like to lead a spade on these auctions because it is right more often than you would think. You know declarer has 4 clubs, and you ahev too many entries to be looking to set up partners suit, but every lead here has the potential to throw away tricks.

I think it's close.

 

Bd (5) I think it might have been an error to led the second diamond hold. It definitely feels like an error to win the third diamond and play a heart. If you are going to play a heart you need to win the second diamond as you are only getting a third diamond when south has a heart honour rather than a spade honour.

Perhaps ♠9 from partner might have woken me up.

 

Thank you for your insights.