[skjaeran]

Scoring: IMP

1NT p 2♥ p
2♠ p p p

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Partner leads the ♦8 (standard leads) to the J, 5 and 7. You probably ducked to give declarer the impression that the lead was from K98x. Declarer playes a small trump off dummy, finessing the jack losing to partners queen. Back comes ♦3 to 2, K and A. The ♠K follows to your A.
How do you set out to beat this?

[Free]

I think the best way is to play ♥ now.

[awm]

How about heart king?

Declarer is pretty much marked with one of the ♣A and the ♥A. This gives him eight tricks, in the form of 2 trumps, 4 diamonds, his ace, and dummy's ♣K. We can't set up side suit tricks fast enough to prevent this, so we will need to score a ruff in order to set (removing one of declarer's diamond winners). We should assume partner started with three trumps and declarer with ♠KJ tight.

If declarer has the club ace, then we can certainly win the heart king and then give partner the ruff. Or we could give partner the ruff right away and get a heart return. It won't matter whether we play hearts or diamonds first.

But say declarer has ♥A instead. If declarer has the ♥Q too, then we can't set -- declarer has two hearts, two spades, three diamonds, and the club king and we will score only four trump tricks and the club ace (if we take the ruff right off, declarer can pitch a club on a good diamond before we get our second club -- if we attack clubs right away declarer can get to dummy and play a third round of trump, removing our ruff trick). But if declarer has ♥A and not the heart queen, we can set as long as we establish our heart winner before taking the ruff. Declarer can't get to dummy fast enough to remove our ruff (since partner has ♣A). However, we need to maintain an entry to hand other than the last trump in order to give partner the ruff. A small heart play can be ducked by declarer to partner, at which point partner cannot return a club (declarer's ♣Q will score) and we can never regain the lead for the ruff. So we have to play a high heart, either the king or jack. The king seems more likely to be read correctly by partner than the jack.

[skjaeran]

awm, on Jun 28 2007, 08:48 PM, said:

How about heart king?

Declarer is pretty much marked with one of the ♣A and the ♥A. This gives him eight tricks, in the form of 2 trumps, 4 diamonds, his ace, and dummy's ♣K. We can't set up side suit tricks fast enough to prevent this, so we will need to score a ruff in order to set (removing one of declarer's diamond winners). We should assume partner started with three trumps and declarer with ♠KJ tight.

If declarer has the club ace, then we can certainly win the heart king and then give partner the ruff. Or we could give partner the ruff right away and get a heart return. It won't matter whether we play hearts or diamonds first.

But say declarer has ♥A instead. If declarer has the ♥Q too, then we can't set -- declarer has two hearts, two spades, three diamonds, and the club king and we will score only four trump tricks and the club ace (if we take the ruff right off, declarer can pitch a club on a good diamond before we get our second club -- if we attack clubs right away declarer can get to dummy and play a third round of trump, removing our ruff trick). But if declarer has ♥A and not the heart queen, we can set as long as we establish our heart winner before taking the ruff. Declarer can't get to dummy fast enough to remove our ruff (since partner has ♣A). However, we need to maintain an entry to hand other than the last trump in order to give partner the ruff. A small heart play can be ducked by declarer to partner, at which point partner cannot return a club (declarer's ♣Q will score) and we can never regain the lead for the ruff. So we have to play a high heart, either the king or jack. The king seems more likely to be read correctly by partner than the jack.

That's spot on - good analysis!
Neither the player in the semi final of the open teams in Antalya, nor any commentator spotted this defence.

Partner's hand: ♠Q64 ♥QT842 ♦83 ♣A73