[pclayton]

Scoring: MP

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You defend 3N after 1N - 3N and lead the ♠5, J, K, 4. Your agreements are UDCA, 4th best and Smith Echo.

Pard returns the ♠8, 6, 3, A

Declarer leads a club to his 10, pard following with the 7 and you win the Jack.

Now what?

[FrancesHinden]

I've never played reverse count.
What card was partner supposed to play back at trick two from K82? K1082?

Assuming that reverse count doesn't apply to the returns, you are asking if partner has K82 of spades (in which case the suit is now cashing), or K8 doubleton when playing a spade sets up another trick for declarer.

I would try and cash the spades for four reasons:

i) It's the easy way to beat the contract. If declarer started with four spades we need to come to 3 more tricks in the red suits to beat it, which looks an uphill battle.

ii) With K10xx in clubs declarer would cash a top honour first, so partner either has K7 doubleton club or is starting a Smith Peter from 74 or 73. With the honour position known in spades, partner should smith to show a better than expected holding - and he knows the only thing that will be unclear is his count in the suit. While 10xx in clusb is possible for declarer, with 12+ points in the red suits I am not confident he would be playing on clubs.

iii) Most declarer play their pips upwards. If declarer has 10642 of spades he's managed to conceal the two.

iv) Declarer has lost a club trick to you. If he has spades, why didn't play to the King then run the 10, which ensures losing a trick to East when you have Qxx or Jxx (it also avoids losing to singleton club honour). If declarer had 10xxx in spades, and they were possibly 4-3, he might try and lose the club to you to guard his second spade stop, but you carefully told him you have five when you played the 3 on the second round of the suit (you should have played the 7).

[mikeh]

I almost agree with Frances...in fact, I do agree that we should cash the ♠Q, but not for all of her reasons.

1. Beating the contract would be nice, but giving up an avoidable overtrick would be as bad as going plus will be good... this is mps

2. I'm not at all sure that we ought to have given false-count at trick 2: had we done so, and partner held the desired K82, why should he give us a smith echo now.... ? Unless he reads us to be false-carding, and there is no compelling reason he should, he doesn't want us cashing the Q from Q9... of course, we wouldn't be doing that anyway, since we'd know that declarer had 10xxx... but this would not be a Smith situation anymore. We were correct, I think, to show the 5th spade, precisely so that partner can tell us that the suit is 5332.

3. If declarer is 3=3 in the blacks, with partner holding both black Kings, that gives declarer good holdings in the red suits... at least 15 hcp there. And at least a 4-3 fit in one of them. I wouldn't expect him to, essentially, concede the 5th defensive trick by ducking a club from 10xx... we run our spades, and what does he discard? He can't be certain that he'd read the situation correctly, or that it is readable. I think he'd be playing a red suit at trick 3 if he had no ♣K. And this assumes that partner played low from K7 without apparent thought.... and while he should, this is a tougher play than declarer concealing the spade 2...see below.

4. I agree with the possible inference from the concealed spade 2: but that depends on who is sitting to my right... I think most experts conceal the 2 without conscious thought... this is such a familiar situation, I suspect most experts would have to consciously select the 2 in order for it to be played early

[FrancesHinden]

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I think he'd be playing a red suit at trick 3 if he had no ♣K.

So do I.

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And this assumes that partner played low from K7 without apparent thought.... and while he should, this is a tougher play than declarer concealing the spade 2...s

Maybe I've got more faith in my partner's carding than declarer's signalling than you... I'd expect most partners to play low from K7 without apparent thought unless they had a third spade (in which case they would rise and play it).

So K7 is a serious technical risk, except for the fact we don't think declarer would be playing on clubs in that case.

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Beating the contract would be nice, but giving up an avoidable overtrick would be as bad as going plus will be good... this is mps

Maybe this is a regional thing... playing in weak NT land, I'm defending against an unusual auction. Opposite a 15-16 rebid (or even a 15-17 rebid) many players in the North seat might have invited rather than forced to game, and so some of the field might not be in game. That makes beating the contract more important.

[pclayton]

http://www.acbldistrict23.org/Results%2020...uly/sat1pmm.pdf

Look at Board 25. Declarer's play in the club suit is either creative or very absence minded. I don't think I had the red suits right but it doesn't really matter.

I put declarer on ♣KTx. Clearly, pard's 7 is the beginning of a Smith, so I was confident that pard had the 3rd spade. I cashed out for -1 and a good board.

I was amazed to find out declarer had 9 clubs.

I told my pard later that he's so good that he can give a Smith Echo with a singleton.