lamford Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 [hv=pc=n&w=sq65hq74dkj3ckj98&n=sjt74hk65da85cqt3&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp1n(12-14)ppp]266|200[/hv]Matchpoints. Tuesday's SIMs in England. You choose to lead the eight of clubs, and dummy plays the ten. Partner plays the six, reverse count. Declarer plays a spade to the ace, partner playing the eight, again reverse count, and leads a club. You play the king, and partner follows with the seven. Over to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gszes Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 I will try the heart Q surely it is not too much to ask for P to have AJxxx in hearts:) Never fear getting squeezed since you have and easy spade and diamond pitch and declarer will have to guess that u blanked your spade Q if they started with the expected AKxx in spades. If all works right you will score 1c 5h 1s and 1d (exiting with spade after winning bare Q). Should be worth a lot of MP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmnka447 Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 I'm also switching to ♥ Q. Missing honors - ♠ AK ♥ AJ ♦ Q ♣ A West and North have 22 HCP between them, so partner can have 4-6 HCP depending on Opener's hand. Declarer has been shown to have ♠ A and ♣ A (by virtue of play to 1st trick). Declarer can't have both ♥ A and ♠ K for a 1 NT opening because that's too many points (15). Partner should a doubleton ♣ as declarer played 2 low ♣ and has the A yet. With ♠ AKxx, Declarer might well have finessed the ♠ J at trick 2. If declarer has ♥ A, then Declarer has 7 tricks (3 ♣, 2 ♥, 1 ♦, 1 ♠). ♥ Q might give up a trick if Declarer has ♥ J10x(x) but doesn't hurt if Declarer has ♥ Jxx(x). But ♥ look like the best chance for tricks for our side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrAce Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 I will try the heart Q surely it is not too much to ask for P to have AJxxx in hearts:) I'm also switching to ♥ Q. An improvement to your defense can be to play small ♥ instead of Q. There is almost no hand if at all, where small ♥ loses when Q wins. Q of ♥ deserves to find declarer with a slight under range hand. AKxTxxxxxAxxx or deserves to find declarer with JTx(x) ♥ for his extra tricks and would probably say a silent "thank you" in his head due to MP. AKxJTxxxxAxxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherdano Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 If you assume declarer has ♠AK (seems obvious from the play to me), the a priori odds are 62% that he has ♥J, and 62% that he has ♦Q. Just saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherdano Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 Q of ♥ deserves to find declarer with a slight under range hand. AKxTxxxxxAxxx♥Q might still be successful on this layout... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrAce Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 ♥Q might still be successful on this layout... Na, from QJx(x) he would have started with ♥ instead of ♣ probably but yeah declarer may go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherdano Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 I am quite tempted by the ♦K. It's clearly a success when declarer doesn't have the ♦Q. But it's sometimes also a success when he has both ♥J and ♦Q. If declarer has AKx Jxxx Qx Axxx, the ♦K switch prevents him from taking both 3 spade trick and 3 club tricks, and he'll end up with 7 tricks. (He cannot both unblock clubs and keep an entry to his 3rd spade.) If we switch to a low heart, partner will put in the 9 or T; declarer wins ♥J, unblocks clubs, plays a spade to the king, takes his ♣A, and sets up a spade for 8 tricks. If declarer has AKx Jxx Qxx Axxx, the play may either go as above; or declarer may decide to duck a diamond - in which case he gets the same 8 tricks as after a heart switch. And if declarer has AKx JTx Qxx Axxx, the heart switch gives him 9 tricks (win ♥T, unblock clubs, set up spades and we are forced to give him another red suit trick). Same with ♥J9x instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamford Posted February 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 I am quite tempted by the ♦K. It's clearly a success when declarer doesn't have the ♦Q. But it's sometimes also a success when he has both ♥J and ♦Q. If declarer has AKx Jxxx Qx Axxx, the ♦K switch prevents him from taking both 3 spade trick and 3 club tricks, and he'll end up with 7 tricks. (He cannot both unblock clubs and keep an entry to his 3rd spade.) If we switch to a low heart, partner will put in the 9 or T; declarer wins ♥J, unblocks clubs, plays a spade to the king, takes his ♣A, and sets up a spade for 8 tricks. If declarer has AKx Jxx Qxx Axxx, the play may either go as above; or declarer may decide to duck a diamond - in which case he gets the same 8 tricks as after a heart switch. And if declarer has AKx JTx Qxx Axxx, the heart switch gives him 9 tricks (win ♥T, unblock clubs, set up spades and we are forced to give him another red suit trick). Same with ♥J9x instead.I did switch to the king of diamonds, and declarer, a strong player, ducked in dummy. Partner encouraged, which I think means she has four cards including the queen or better. Hard not to encourage when dummy ducks. What now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherdano Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Paul, since you posted this problem, I knew there'd be more to it than guessing the right switch. However, I don't see anything I can do here besides continuing a diamond. What happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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