Try your best not to help declarer

[inquiry]

To graduate from interemediate to advanced, you will have to learn an important concept.... try not to help declearer with his discovery plays. Here is a case in point... Le't see where EAST when wrong on this hand.

 

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=skj9832h84d8caj75&w=s7hkt76dkjt72cq63&e=sat65hqj92d965c82&s=sq4ha53daq43ckt94]399|300|Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 

 -     Pass  Pass  1NT

 Pass  2♥!   Pass  2♠

 3♦    4♠    Pass  Pass

 Pass  

 

1NT = 15 to 17 hcp.

[/hv]

 

H6 H8 HJ HA <--- ♥6 is 4th best. Note partner didn't lead A or K or Q of ♦

 

This suggest that partner lacks KQT, KQJ. QJT, AKJ, of diamonds. We have seen 4 of declearer's points

 

S4 S7 SK SA <<--- declearer must have ♠Q or he would have stiff, that is 6 pts

D6 DA D7 D8 <<-- declearer's diamond ACE probably means he has ♦Q too, or partner would have lead one... That is 6 more ponts.. for total of 12 outside of clubs.

 

SQ D2 S2 S5 <<==

D3 DT H4 D5 <<== ♦Ten suggest partner is KJTxx solidifying guess on ♦Q

H7 S3 H2 H3 <== higher heart. Partner is 1-4-5-3, declearer 2-3-4-4

SJ S6 H5 HT <<== partner is feeling the pain on trumps,

S9 ST D4 HK <<== declarer must notice.. he knows you have ♥Q

 

If declarer has both club honors (King and queen), that gives him 17 hcp and rest of tricks. If he has just the queen, he has to hook your partner. But if he has Kxxx he has to hook your partner. But if he has KTxx he has a two way finessee. But he can't be certain as to who to finesee... At this point if your parnter was 1-4-6-2, the odds would favor finessing you for the queen (which you can see is the wrong play for him). If your partner is 1-4-5-3, the odds favor finessing your partner.

 

So what has this to do with discovery? IF you lead your diamnd, north will ruff, and get complete count of the hand. HE will know your partner started with 5 diamnonds, and hence 3 clubs. But if you exit your heart, he will not discover for certain your distribution.

 

BTW, if a GOOD player exits with a diamond here, play to drop the Queen offsides doubleton, because if they are helping you get count it is for a reason... and if you are really good, as a defender, and you know they think this way, you can try a double cross by exiting with a diamond to help them count when having 2 small clubs... but then.. if they know that your know... oh heck....good thing most don't play that well as you could spend the whole day trying to figure out how good your good player thinks you are.

 

East exited a diamond, after whihc declarer played west correctly for teh queen.

[inquiry]

[hv=d=e&v=a&n=skt95hj73dkq63ca4&w=sq842ht96dt95cj97&e=s76hq85dj82cqt853&s=saj3hak42da74ck62]399|300|Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 

 -     -     Pass  1♣

 Pass  1♦    Pass  2NT

 Pass  3♠    Pass  4♠

 Pass  4NT   Pass  5♣

 Pass  6NT   Pass  Pass

 Pass  [/hv]

 

Speaking of trying to outguess what your opponent is thinking, consider this hand from yesterday.... 6NT is on a ♠ guess. At my table, south, went for a discovery play by cashing four quick rounds of diamonds.

 

DT D3 D2 DA

D4 D9 DK D8

DQ DJ D7 D5

D6 C3 C2 S2 <<--- here i discarded a spade without a care in the world.

 

Now then, if south respected me, he might say, why was ben discarding a spade. Surely he could afford something else.

 

SK S6 S3 S4 <<-- but you can see he took my discard as no interest in spades

 

Or perhaps he thought my opinion of him was high enough that I would discard a spade iwth nothing in spades, to make him think I was trying to trick him into believing I had something in spades by pretending not to have something. Anyway, the discard had the desired effect. He cashed the spade king immediately and took the losing ♠ finessee. So in addition to not helping them with their discovery plays, you can try use their discovery plays to help push them into the wrong decision... I play against some people I would never discard a spade here against when holding the QUEEN... it helps to know your opponent. Here, I thought the spade discard might work... :-)

 

S5 S7 SJ SQ

C7 C4 CQ CK

SA S8 S9 C5

C6 C9 CA C8

ST CT H2 HT

H3 H5 HA H6

HK H9 H7 H8

H4 CJ HJ HQ

[ArcLight]

Decalrer made one serious mistake.

Declarer can afford 1 loser, and it may help with the discocery of the suit lay out.

Choose a suit you are long in (Hearts).

 

Lead up to the J. This gives up on the 16% chance that the Q is doubleton and would fall to the play of the Heart A,K. It loses, and declarer can now contine hearts. (What declarer did in your example was play the hearts form the top and contine, which results in a set if they are 4-2 with the Q in the long hand)

 

He (she) gets to play:

4 rounds of diamonds

4 rounds of hearts (because hearts are 3-3)

2 of clubs

 

In this case, we dont gain the needed info, so it comes to a guess.

But getting that extra 2 rounds of hearts could make a difference on other hands.