More killing defence

[Walddk]

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=s105haq105dakq96c103&w=saj3h9764dj10ckj92]266|200|Scoring: IMP

South: 3NT

Lead: C2[/hv]

 

This deal is from the English Championships about 45 years ago. The bidding went (North dealer):

 

1♦ - 1♠

2♥ - 2NT

3NT - pass

 

North overbid a couple of times, but that is not a concern of yours. You lead ♣2 to partner's ace and declarer's 5. East continues with ♣7 to your jack over South's 8. At this point the player in the West seat erred and let the contract through.

 

Can you do better? What do you lead at trick 3 and why? Again hidden text would be nice, but it's not a must.

 

Roland

[whereagles]

Disagree. Bidding is fine and commendable :blink: As for the play..

 

 

 

Play spade ace. If pard has the king he'll encourage to play back a club. Otherwise you'll switch to hearts, playing pard for the king. In this case declarer has 5 diams, 1 heart, and hopefully 2 spades only, so he'll still go down after the heart finesse.

 

[Walddk]

Disagree. Bidding is fine and commendable :blink: As for the play..

 

 

 

Play spade ace. If pard has the king he'll encourage to play back a club. Otherwise you'll switch to hearts, playing pard for the king. In this case declarer has 5 diams, 1 heart, and hopefully 2 spades only, so he'll still go down after the heart finesse.

If a reverse on a 15 count is no more than you require, then fine with me, but that is obviously not the point. I can tell you, however (others should not peek), that your defence is wrong.

 

Roland

[whereagles]

Oh well.. bidding is my strong point anyway.. lol :blink:

[joker_gib]

 

Small ♠ !

 

- If declarer has the ♥K, I can still beat the contract with partner having the ♠K

- if partner has the ♥K, declarer has only 7 tricks

 

Alain

 

[PMetsch]

3 of spades, playing partner for heart king or spade king

[Chamaco]

 

If declarer has 4 hearts tricks, instead, the only hope is that the club Q drops under my K. In that case, even returning a spade would leave declarer with 10 top tricks.

 

If pard has a heart stopper, it seems to me declarer is down regardless of how he plays.

 

My guess, however, is that declarer has started with 4 clubs and 4 spades.

 

So I will play a passive defense, playing a diamond, and sitting waiting for our tricks. This will be wrong if declarer has started with Qxx of clubs, and seems correct instead if declarer started with Qxxx.

===============================

 

Alright after some more careful thinking I understood why it's better leading a spade... :(

 

 

 

 

[Free]

Small ♠ can't do any harm. ♠A on the other hand can! Small ♠ it is.

[Jurek S]

x S, can't see any reason to play ♦, ♥ will give the contract if decl has the K, and I can always argue about this 7 of ♣

:(

[Guest Jlall]

Well...here goes...

 

 

The red suits are favorable for declarer. Perhaps he has Kx and will misguess, but I will try to set this contract legitimately. If partner has the HK, and I play a low spade this could be disaster if declarer has KQ9x and 8xxx of diamonds or the like. However, if I play a heart and partner has the spade king, this is clearly a disaster. If I try to hedge my bets by playing a diamond, declarer may run 9 red tricks. If I try the spade ace looking for a signal, it may be too late (and pard may be out of clubs so I would have to lead low). Hmmmmm... I am going to try a small spade. This is my reasoning. If pard DOES have the king of hearts then I'm ok if he has the 9 of spades, Q of spades, or K of spades(unlikely) as well. I'm also OK when declarer has 3 or less diamonds. This is why. If he wins the ST, and comes back a small spade i win my ace and shift to a heart. declarer must pop ace, and even if he has 8xx of diamonds his communications are screwed so he cant cash both spades and diamonds. A small spade will win when pard has the spade king, regardless of whether or not he has a club left in his hand since he can lead a spade through as well. Hope I got this one right :(

 

 

Good hand

[Fluffy]

my thoughts:

 

 

There are 3 ways of defeat:

 

-partner having spade King

-partner having heart King

-partner having club AQ874, this is not likelly looking at the bidding, but anyway its possible.

 

If south has !sKQ9x and !cQ8xx(x) playing any spade gives the contract, if he has instead !sK anything but a spade gives the contract.

 

What doesn't give the contrtact is cashing the club King!, with some luck partner may signal his King and we will switch to the correct suit, declarer making 1♥, 5♦ 2♣=8.

 

 

 

 

So all in all I play ♣K :-P

[Guest Jlall]

the problem is if pard has a stiff club left, that wont be much of a signal to you :)

[shanbari]

 

SJ,

if declear had KQ9x in spade, i want to block it..

 

 

 

shan

[luke warm]

ok, i'll try

 

 

if i arbitrarily give south 8-10 hcp, partner has 5-7... he's played 4 of them, so can possibly have a king... i don't think it's likely, but it's possible

 

i think partner is 3253 so declarer is 5314.. if he has a king, odds are it's 3/2 it's in spades... in spite of this, i lead the ♥9.. if he has the ♥K and gets in, i want him to know where my entry outside of clubs is

 

[Winstonm]

[HIDDEN] If both red suits are coming in and declarer holds the King of spades there is no chance. So it seems the problem is to let partner know what suit to lead back when he gets in. If I lead the spade 3, when declarer holds the KQ, partner may take me for AQ3 and the QJ42 of clubs and return a spade through, playing declarer for KJxx. I think the play of the J of spades caters to all these possibilities - if spades were our future, I would certainly play a low one, so partner, if he can see that diamonds and clubs are coming in, should go in with the King if he has it, on hope that it will hold, and return a club...if declarer wins this trick and tries the heart finesse, pard will surely now know what to do.[HIDDEN]

 

WinstonM

[Guest Jlall]

If partner has the king of spades and a doubleton club the jack of spades has just blown the contract.

[slothy]

lol well hidden winston

 

:) :)

[Winstonm]

I am such a stupid.....LoL :)

[Al_U_Card]

Always like to punish the overbidders. Pard is not quite broke, he could have Jx(x) of H and we know that they have 9 tricks if they play S so we must get a low H on the table and hope.

[Winstonm]

If partner has the king of spades and a doubleton club the jack of spades has just blown the contract

 

 

[As much as I respect you, Justin, I think you might be in error, here. If partner has that holding, and the king of spades holds the trick, all he has to do is play a spade back to my ace so I can cash the K of clubs for the settting trick, no? Even if declarer held: KQ9x, Jx, xx, Q8xxx, after the J of spades, what will he do - I can win a second spade, cash the Club King, and endplay him in dummy. I liked your line a lot except that it allows declarer to rattle off 9 with the most normal-looking hand: Q9xx, KJx, xx, Q8xx or Kxxx, Jx, xxx Q8xx, and my question is if he held: KQ9x, Kx, xx, Q8xx, why wouldn't he jump to 3N as 45 years ago was before Lebensold I believe.

 

My line takes 2 or 3 clubs in partner's hand if he holds the K of Spades, or 3 clubs if he holds the King of hearts, as best as I can figure it, and steers partner toward the winning line. Regardless, I wouldn't want to play you for cash, JL, LoL. :)

 

 

WinstonM

[Guest Jlall]

hmm i played a low spade so not sure why he makes if pard has the SK...you are right tho they are in 3N i was trying to beat 2 for some reason?? lol... I don't understand what layout the jack of spades is better than the low one though

[Winstonm]

I don't understand what layout the jack of spades is better than the low one though

 

 

Not a layout at all, Justin, but trying to steer partner in the winning return if he holds the heart K.

 

What is pard to return if he gets in with the heart king? Does he play me for spade AQ and Club Qx or for Club K9?

 

Only relevance to the spade J is to get partner off returning spades unless that is the only way to beat it....he has the K and xx of clubs.

 

Anyway, that's my (perverted) thinking. :)

 

 

WinstonM

 

This hidden deal is pretty neat....why didn't you guys tell me before? ROFLOL

[PMetsch]

I don't understand what layout the jack of spades is better than the low one though

If declarer has

 

KQ9x

x

8xxx

Qxxx

 

If you play a low spade then declarer can make 3 spade tricks, but if you play J and duck the next spade, then delarer will make only 2 spade tricks.

[Guest Jlall]

that's good, I like it. I am convinced :)

[Walddk]

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=s105haq105dakq96c103&w=saj3h9764dj10ckj92&e=sk742h82d7432ca74&s=sq986hkj3d85cq865]399|300|Scoring: IMP

South: 3NT

Lead: C2[/hv]

 

Here is the full hand. The bidding was:

 

1♦ - 1♠

2♥ - 2NT

3NT - pass

 

Trick 1: ♣2, 3, A, 5.

 

Trick 2: ♣7, 8, J, 10.

 

Trick 3: ??

 

After the return of ♣7 West correctly realised that the rest of the clubs would not stand up and was now on a guess as to which major suit king partner had. He switched to a heart which was a disaster on this layout.

 

Could he have known? Surely not, but the thing is that he didn't have to guess at this point. The return of ♠3!! would give him another go if East didn't have ♠K. Let's assume that the layout had been this:

 

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=s105haq105dakq96c103&w=saj3h9764dj10ckj92&e=sk742h82d7432ca74&s=sq986hkj3d85cq865]399|300|Scoring: IMP

South: 3NT

Lead: C2[/hv]

 

Declarer could win dummy's 10 and continue spades to West's ace, and now it's time to switch to a heart. South has no choice; he must take the finesse, and the contract goes down.

 

Note that ♠3 is the card to return, and not the jack or ace. If you switch to ♠A to see if partner likes it or not, you would just have presented declarer with the contract, and the jack is equally wrong in case East had been out of clubs.

 

♠3 caters for everything whenever the contract can be defeated. Well done to those of you who found the killing switch!

 

Roland