When it's easy, watch out!

[Walddk]

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s54h9862da94cakq2&w=shakq104dkj82cj1097]266|200|Scoring: IMP

S: 4S doubled

Lead: Ace of hearts[/hv]

 

You are West and open 1♥ passed to South, who jumps to 3♠. Pass by you now, although a take-out double would not be unreasonable even at these colours. North raises to 4♠, and your partner doubles! All pass.

 

The lead is easy: A top heart, ace or king depending on your partnership agreement. The 3 from partner (standard attitude and count), and declarer follows with the 7.

 

Let me ask you 2 questions:

 

- 1. How do you picture the two hidden hands?

 

- 2. How do you plan the defence now?

 

Hint: When things look easy, it's time to watch out.

 

(If any advanced and/or expert players feel like chipping in, please use hidden text).

 

Roland

[Trumpace]

I think there might be a trump coup against partner. I won't lead a heart allowing declarer to reduce his trump length. (With a heart continuation I probably will be thrown in with a diamond on the 11th trick to smother partner).

 

I will lead a club. I won't lead a diamond as declarer might have the Q, and I won't lead a spade from that beautiful holding :lol:

 

Just a hunch, based on the title, so haven't bothered to hide it. :unsure:

I am probably way off.

[Winstonm]

Partner rates to be 5332 or 5323. He will need to hold a minimum of QJ10xx of spades it would seem. Declarer will have to come to at least 5 spade tricks to make. He will want to trump hearts in hand and will need entries. A club shift will allow him to ruff, lead another club, cash a club while partner follows, then lead another heart...pard can pitch a diamond, but declarer can return in diamonds to lead another club and partner is skewered. I have to lead the K of diamonds at trick two, attacking the entry. If declarer has 3 clubs, partner can ruff the third round; if declarer holds 2 clubs, then he holds 4 diamonds to the Queen- he may dispose of 1 on the third club, but still has a diamond loser. When the last heart or the 4th club is led from dummy, pard can ruff high.

[Jurek S]

Just take my 3♥ tricks and hope for 1 sure ♠.

What else ? How could he pass (pard) with 3♥ and enough for double ? I'd probaly continue ♦K.

[Walddk]

Just take my 3♥ tricks and hope for 1 sure ♠.

What else ? How could he pass (pard) with 3♥ and enough for double ? I'd probaly continue ♦K.

Just a couple of questions at this point, Jurek. Do you think it's likely that South jumped to 3♠ with xxx in hearts? How could partner pass 1♥ with 3 hearts and enough for double of 4♠? Well, this is for you to figure out.

 

Roland

[Finch]

Without answering the question, a slight side note is that many experts have agreed a specific meaning for A & K leads. Very common in Europe is to play that Ace asks for attitude, King asks for count. So on this hand you would have led the King and known for certain that partner has 1 or 3 hearts (whereas on the actual hand here partner could be discouraging with a doubleton).

 

Perhaps not so relevant here, but this type of agreement can be extremely useful.

[Jurek S]

Roland,

Do you think that less than AKQxxxx and ♦Q is even a possibility for 3♠ ?

I don't.

[Walddk]

Roland,

Do you think that less than AKQxxxx and ♦Q is even a possibility for 3♠ ?

I don't.

I do actually, and furthermore, I do not think that your sensible partner would double 4♠ on say

 

J109x

x

xxxx

xxxx

 

Does your 1♥ opening promise at least 3 defensive tricks? Finally, if you think he has a hand like this, why did you switch to ♦K at trick 2 as stated in your previous post? Then you know that declarer's heart losers go away on dummy's high clubs.

 

Was ♦K a typo? Did you mean ♥K?

 

Roland

[sceptic]

East may hold something like Qxxx Jxx Q10x xxx

 

South may hold something like AKJxxx x Qxx xx

 

3 ask for Diamond back as you can see clubs is a non starter and I think itis the only place you can make 2 tricks as well as from the A hearts and if you can get your spade trick, makes for 1 down

[inquiry]

 

Bizzaro land. Partner can't keep the bidding open, and then doubles then off in 4♠. Two explaination, partner has five spades, so they are in 6-2 fit. Or partner made a lightner double and is void in some suit (clubs or diamonds) and hoped to score some ruffs on the get go. If partner had five spades, three hearts, and the diamond Queen, he would have bid I think. So more likely is partner does not have three hearts. If partner had five spades and one heart, he would pass, so as not to encourage a "creative" lead.

 

Partner is probably 4-2-6-0 or 4-2-0-6. With the first of these two, south probably doesn't have his bid, as he surely needs teh diamond queen. And partner with such hand might use FORCING 1NT (as he would have QTxxxx of diamonds, and can easily handle any rebid you make over 1NT). So the second of these is by far the most likely. Your "natural" heart lead has already cost you one trick, don't amplify the problem by continuing in this misguided plan. The right play now is club for a ruff, lead the Club Ten to encourage heart back. Hopefully partner will ruff and I will still have a heart entry to my hand for another ruff.

 

If partner had one heart and was hoping for heart ruffs, he would just pass. If partner has three hearts we are likely toast. Declearer will surely have 6♠+ and with six, really strong ones, and with five ♠ partner would have encouraged you to continue ♥ any way in the hopes of causing declearer to lose control. I am going to guess that partner played the ♥3 from 5 or 3 JAck doubleton in the hopes you would read it as a switch. After all he is thinking, didn't you hear his clear lightner double?

 

[Chamaco]

 

Pard is likely to be 5=1=(34) or 5=1=(25)

 

The only reason pard could even think of doubling after not being able to keep the bidding open is to have 5 or 6 spades and be short in my suit (and even then, I think it's unwise, only helping declarer to plan since the early play a trump coup ).

Shortness in pard suit can often provide xtra tricks and increases the defensive power: now, since pard did not keep the bidding alive, the only defensive assets for a double can come from distributional features.

 

A sane pard CANNOT reasonably double for penalty short of values if he has 2+ cards in my opening suit (because that would mean that some of the defensive tricks I have would be likely be ruffed)

 

This means I can cash 3 hearts right away.

The problem that comes next is to avoid a trump coup over pard.

 

In which minor shall I exit ?

If declarer is void in clubs I think playing the K of diamonds to remove early the diamond entry in dummy seems the right play.

If he has 1 club, he will discard the 2 diamond losers anyways on clubs, so DK won't hurt.

If he has 2 clubs, he will discard his only diamond loser anyways on clubs, so DK won't hurt again.

If he has 3 clubs, he has no diamond losers, so again DK seems ok.

 

So after cashing my 3 heart tricks I shall exit with the diamond king, reducing the dummy entries to try to interfere with the trump coup.

 

[Guest Jlall]

ben, 4260 seems like 12 cards to me :)

[inquiry]

ben, 4260 seems like 12 cards to me :)

I never did learn to count... :-(

[han]

Now that we are at it, 6 clubs would make it 14 clubs at least.

[Jurek S]

Roland,

Do you think that less than AKQxxxx and ♦Q is even a possibility for 3♠ ?

I don't.

I do actually, and furthermore, I do not think that your sensible partner would double 4♠ on say

 

J109x

x

xxxx

xxxx

 

Does your 1♥ opening promise at least 3 defensive tricks? Finally, if you think he has a hand like this, why did you switch to ♦K at trick 2 as stated in your previous post? Then you know that declarer's heart losers go away on dummy's high clubs.

 

Was ♦K a typo? Did you mean ♥K?

 

Roland

Finally, if you think he has a hand like this, why did you switch to ♦K at trick 2 as stated in your previous post?

 

3 ♥ tricks and after ♦ K, reasoning like Chamaco

[Trumpace]

I placed declarer with 7 spades, singleton heart, Qx of diamonds and xxx of clubs.

 

Given partners bidding (double etc), he probably has 4 good spades which are usually worth 2 spade tricks. If partner has a solid spade holding like KQJx, we have 2 spade tricks. But we then have a squeeze against us in the minors, which can be broken by partner by leading diamonds each time he gets in. (If partner has a solid spade holding, he would probably have raised to 2♥)

 

So we give partner a broken holding in spades which is finessable. Declarer then needs a trump coup against partner. He needs to ruff three times in hand and finesse twice in spades. So he needs a total of 6 entries (or 5 entries + throw you in on the 11th trick) in dummy. Leading a heart at the second trick reduces declarer's entry needs to 5 (or 4 + throwin). He has exactly 4 entries, plus the diamond Q to throw you in on the 11th trick.

 

So we lead a club at the second trick and let declarer deal with his entry problems. Partner must be alert enough to return a diamond when he gets in.

 

Leading a diamond gives declarer his 10th trick.

 

I am still unsure :)

[Walddk]

If partner has a solid spade holding like KQJx, we have 2 spade tricks.

Partner does not have KQJx in spades. Why? He passed 1♥. So let's assume that he has less than 6 hcp.

 

Roland

[Double !]

Now that we are at it, 6 clubs would make it 14 clubs at least.

Han:

 

FYI; every player is permitted 14 clubs (including the putter).

[Fluffy]

ben, 4260 seems like 12 cards to me :P

I never did learn to count... :-(

I though that counting was forbidden on this game, isn't it?

[Walddk]

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s54h9862da94cakq2&w=shakq104dkj82cj1097&e=sqj109hj53d1075c543&s=sak87632h7dq63c86]399|300|Scoring: IMP

S: 4S doubled

Lead: Ace of hearts[/hv]

 

Here is the full hand. West opened 1♥ passed to South who jumped to 3♠ and was raised to game, doubled by East.

 

When East followed with the 3 at trick 1, it suggested that South had a singleton. East must clearly have doubled on good spades (remember that he passed 1♥, so he has less than 6 hcp), presumably two certain tricks, but for his jump to the 3-level, South is likely to have 7 spades.

 

What you must be careful about is that you don't let declarer score too many ruffs with small trumps, thus reducing his trump length. Let us see what happens if you carelessly ("automatically"?) continue with a high heart at trick 2.

 

South ruffs and gets the bad news when he cashes ♠A. He enters dummy with a club and ruffs another heart. Back to dummy with a club to the king, and he pitches a diamond on ♣Q. He now leads dummy's last heart, and East can't gain anything by ruffing. If he does, declarer just pitches another diamond loser ("loser on loser") and is home directly.

 

So East pitches a diamond, South ruffs, and dummy is entered again with a diamond to the ace. This is the 4-card ending after South has taken 8 of the first 9 tricks:

 

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s54h9862da94cakq2&w=shakq104dkj82cj1097&e=sqj109hj53d1075c543&s=sak87632h7dq63c86]399|300|Scoring: IMP

S: 4S doubled

Lead: Ace of hearts[/hv]

 

When dummy's ♣2 is led, East is exposed to a "coup en passant", and no matter what he does, declarer will score one of his small trumps and the contract.

 

Now, could the contract have been defeated? Yes, a club switch at trick 2 knocks out one of dummy's entries prematurely. South loses the tempo and can't achieve the proper ending. The result will be 1 down. Feel free to try yourself if you don't believe me.

 

Roland

[Echognome]

This is a nice example hand of trump elopement with the corresponding defense to it.

[awm]

Well, it's certainly a pretty position. But I'm not really convinced that the full hand couldn't have been:

 

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s54h9862da94cakq2&w=shakqt4dkj82cjt97&e=sqj98h3dt75c86543&s=sakt7632hj75dq63c]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

In fact I think most of my partners would've tried bidding over 1♥ with three card support and four high card points (something like 1♠ followed by a preference or 1NT followed by a preference to suggest doubleton support or a subminimum raise). The final penalty double is also much more appealing holding shortness in partner's suit (i.e. opener's heart cards are much more likely to score).

 

Note that on this hand, a club shift will allow the contract to make as declarer discards two remaining hearts and a diamond on the clubs, then leads a spade to the ten (losing one heart, one spade, and one diamond). On the other hand, simply cashing the hearts will get a two trick set as declarer has only one dummy entry (the ♦A) and cannot repeat the spade finesse when partner splits honors.

[Chamaco]

Here is the full hand.

Roland, do you think that East's double was reasonable with QJT9 in trumps and 3 cards in the opened suit ?

 

It seems to me that:

 

- 3 cards in the opened suit strongly reduce the expectation of defensive tricks provided by opener (e.g. if opener has "2 defensive tricks" in hearts, one of them is likely to be ruffed because delarer or dummy are more likely to be short)

 

- the double gives away the trump position: it loses more when it helps declarer to plan early the play against the bad split rather than what it gains when we do set the contract 1 trick.

[Echognome]

I completely agree that the double was bad. We're doubling a contract that takes perfect defense to set one trick non-vulnerable at IMPs and at the same time giving away our trump stack. Perhaps with QJ10xx of spades?

 

I don't think that S.J. Simon would approve. ;)

 

However, it is a nice hand in terms of declarer play and defense.

[Chamaco]

However, it is a nice hand in terms of declarer play and defense.

Sure, but my point is that:

if I have to assume that the double by East is close to reasonable, I will place him with at most 1 or 2 cards in hearts, and after he plays small on the lead of the Ace, I tend to place him with a singleton, thereby counting 3 heart tricks.