[Walddk]

Scoring: IMP

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From the final of the Egyptian Premier League on BBO vugraph the other day. You are East, and South opens 1NT (15-17), raised to 3NT.

Your partner (Walid El Ahmady) leads ♠5 (4th best) to your ace and declarer's 2. How do you continue?

Roland

[655321]

I would just return the ♠4.

Perhaps partner has KJ853 J xxxx xxx, or perhaps he has Q9853 KJx xxx xx. Can't think of a way to find out, so I just return partner's suit.

[cherdano]

Obviously the heart ace gives up on ♠KJ85 or ♠KQ85 with partner, but would partner guess the right in that case anyway? (I.e. return a heart after our ♠T continuation at trick 2.)

I think with ♥Qx (and good spades) partner will have no choice but to play the Q, and with Qxx we will also be able to read his signal even if he doesn't play the Q. From J3 he will also have to play the J, so if he does play the Jack it is probably odds on to switch back to spades. It seems ♥A does give us the best practical chances.

[pork rind]

i dont think walid would lead low from nothing and he cant have more than 6 pts max. but declarer prob has 4 spades so it will take 2 leads thru him if part has kj or so(ie declarer may have q 9 xx. so lead back 10 of spades and hope part
reads it for a heart side entry.
tom

[y66]

S4

We might need HA to push a second spade thru Q932.

Agree with comments re: signalling difficulties after HA, esp. when declarer may be falsecarding. Even when it's right to continue hearts, we can't "know" it's right.

Edit: See now why others say ST, not S4.

[CSGibson]

to me it is interesting to note that declarer did not falsecard in spades. If he wanted a spade continuation, then he might have played a higher pip to encourage that direction. I'm playing back the T of spades, saying that I cannot stand to have spades led to me if it gets covered, and hopefully P finds the heart switch (it looks like a toss-up between hearts and diamonds from nuetral holdings in both)

[CSGibson]

Jlall, on Feb 3 2008, 01:19 PM, said:

CSGibson, on Feb 3 2008, 03:55 PM, said:

I'm playing back the T of spades, saying that I cannot stand to have spades led to me if it gets covered

Why does it say that? What would you lead back from T9x? You are forced to play the ten from that too (unless you play the 9, but that is even more unreadable).

Sorry, meant to say denying higher honors, hoping partner will try to find the other entry in my hand to lead through declarer.

[FrancesHinden]

If I play back a spade, I play back the 4, not the 10. This gives partner count in the suit. It also tells partner (inferentially) that I think I have a side entry, because I'm not trying to run the suit directly.

If I play back the 10 partner may think I have A10x, and (depending on his pips) may duck the second round playing me for a minor suit side entry.

[FrancesHinden]

Jlall, on Feb 4 2008, 01:24 PM, said:

FrancesHinden, on Feb 4 2008, 05:30 AM, said:

If I play back a spade, I play back the 4, not the 10.  This gives partner count in the suit.  It also tells partner (inferentially) that I think I have a side entry, because I'm not trying to run the suit directly.

If I play back the 10 partner may think I have A10x, and (depending on his pips) may duck the second round playing me for a minor suit side entry.

Yeah but now he will have to guess your entry, and he may talk himself into thinking that you have FIVE spades because you didnt lead back the ten as opposed to you having an entry (if declarer has Q832 and plays the 8 when you lead back the 4 AT743 is possible for you).

Also curious, why do you reject any form of a heart play at this point (I'm sure you have a good reason)?

He's not going to find it hard to guess my entry if we need to run the suit.
I agree the 5 spades issue is a problem. But I don't think playing the 10 is problem-free. And in particular playing back a very slow 10 will give partner real UI issues.

I haven't actually said whether I'm playing a spade or a heart. I just said IF I play a spade, I'm playing the 4.
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Partner has 4-6 HCP. Unless we are playing unusual leads, partner has a spade honour. He's actually quite likely to have five spades given the other shapes known, although not certain. A spade return is right if
(i) we are running spades and need the ace of hearts as an entry
(ii) he has a minor suit ace and declarer has one spade stop (unlikely but possible)

A heart return is trying to run the suit. The ace of hearts seems to be aiming at a very small target i.e. KQx or KJx in partner's hand: and we need him to unblock an honour under the ace. Even if he's got this, as you say we can't tell the difference between KJx and Jx. What's worse, with Kx he will unblock as well as it is possible that we have AQxxxx (rather than our random minor suit jack). So when partner plays a the K or the J you STILL don't know what to do.

Given all of that, I would rather switch to a low heart than the ace (maybe declarer has KJ doubleton). But in that case I might as well play a spade.

Double dummy I can buy the ace of hearts. But not single dummy.

[Walddk]

If you decide to cash ♥A at trick 2, declarer follows with the queen, partner with .... well, I don't know what you expect him to do .

Roland

[Walddk]

Scoring: IMP

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1NT - 3NT
Lead: ♠5 to the ace.

This turned out to be a very difficult defence. Tarek Sadek continued spades with the 4 to El Ahmady's 9. Walid didn't read the layout and the contract made. It didn't cost much because their team-mates at the other table bid to the much better 5♣ and made it.

♠10 at trick two, or ♥A followed by ♠10 would have made it easier for the defence, but that wasn't obvious at all. There is an interesting point to make if Sadek returns ♠10 and South covers. When West cashes his two remaining spade winners, East must follow with the 7 and 4 to indicate values in hearts (a variation of Lavinthal's suit preference signal).

They would no doubt get that right if Sadek had returned the 10. The fact that one of the world's leading pairs got the defence wrong here goes to show that it's not straightforward.

Roland