[rogerclee]

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Berkowitz declares 3N after north shows 5-4 majors and south denies a fit.

New partnership, your agreed methods: UDCA, reverse smith, standard honor leads vs NT

Trick 1: ♣Q 3 2 A
Trick 2: ♠Q 9 3 ?

[mikeh]

I am going to play him for something resembling KQ Qxx AKJx Axxx and duck spades twice.

[jallerton]

..but ducking would be less successful if declarer's hand is something like Kx Jxx AKQJxx Ax.

What do you mean by "reverse smith"? Originally Smith Peters involved the opening leader petering to request a switch whilst a peter by the opening leader's partner requested a continuation ("do something unusual please partner"). More commonly these days (at least where I play) the peter from both sides shows extra interest in the originally led suit. So I'm not sure what you consider to be "standard" and "reverse smith".

[rogerclee]

jallerton, on 2013-August-01, 15:31, said:

..but ducking would be less successful if declarer's hand is something like Kx Jxx AKQJxx Ax.

What do you mean by "reverse smith"? Originally Smith Peters involved the opening leader petering to request a switch whilst a peter by the opening leader's partner requested a continuation ("do something unusual please partner"). More commonly these days (at least where I play) the peter from both sides shows extra interest in the originally led suit. So I'm not sure what you consider to be "standard" and "reverse smith".

low = nothing unusual (don't switch), high = interest in a switch by opening leader

[JLOGIC]

mikeh, on 2013-August-01, 08:00, said:

I am going to play him for something resembling KQ Qxx AKJx Axxx and duck spades twice.

This seems normal, it is weird declarer led the Q and not the K of spades, that combined with clee posting this hand makes me think maybe declarer has stiff Q of spades but even then we will beat it as long as we're careful (if declarer stops playing spades we can win the CK and return the 8 of spades). I mean partner gave negative smith so it's not like we can take 3 clubs and 2 spades and this is declarers 9th trick. Partner can never be giving count here with K9x.

eta: Also, partner would not duck with K9 doubleton of spades, declarer might have AQ doubleton, and if we have A8xx it blows up the suit unless we can knock out the HA (he doesn't know we have the HK). The only possible gain is if we have Axxx and declarer doesn't have 9 and we don't have 5. If partner had 4 clubs he would know we had 5 tricks by winning. If partner has only 3 clubs, he would still not know that we don't have 4. If his diamonds are so good that he knew it was safe, then we are going to beat them anyways when we duck this spade, they have no tricks.

[mikeh]

jallerton, on 2013-August-01, 15:31, said:

..but ducking would be less successful if declarer's hand is something like Kx Jxx AKQJxx Ax.

What do you mean by "reverse smith"? Originally Smith Peters involved the opening leader petering to request a switch whilst a peter by the opening leader's partner requested a continuation ("do something unusual please partner"). More commonly these days (at least where I play) the peter from both sides shows extra interest in the originally led suit. So I'm not sure what you consider to be "standard" and "reverse smith".

We have a strong clue to the effect that he doesn't hold Kx spades.....hint...look at the lead to trick 2

[GreenMan]

JLOGIC, on 2013-August-01, 17:03, said:

This seems normal, it is weird declarer led the Q and not the K of spades, that combined with clee posting this hand makes me think maybe declarer has stiff Q of spades but even then we will beat it as long as we're careful

But that doesn't explain why partner is signaling interest in a shift. He can only have 3-4 HCP besides the ♣QJ unless South is playing games, and if they were the ♠K, would he try to deflect us from continuing clubs?

That makes me think partner has something like ♦KJTxx, and we ought to lead diamonds every time we're in.

I'm sure I've overlooked a couple of things, so I look forward to the full analysis.

[JLOGIC]

GreenMan, on 2013-August-01, 21:29, said:

But that doesn't explain why partner is signaling interest in a shift. He can only have 3-4 HCP besides the ♣QJ unless South is playing games, and if they were the ♠K, would he try to deflect us from continuing clubs?

That makes me think partner has something like ♦KJTxx, and we ought to lead diamonds every time we're in.

I'm sure I've overlooked a couple of things, so I look forward to the full analysis.

Yeah I don't play smith, I thought it was more about how much you like your own lead rather than how much you like other suits, so with 3 clubs partner would say he didn't like it. Whatever, ducking 2 spades seems clear no matter how you look at it.

[rhm]

Ducking the ♠Q looks like the percentage action

But if declarer has something like

♠KQ,♥Jx,♦AKQJT,♣A985 or ♠Q,♥Qx,♦AKQJxx,♣A985

ducking would not be a success.

Rainer Herrmann

[jogs]

Looks like a hand from a bridge book on defense.
Win the ♠A and return the ♥K while the
spade suit is still blocked.

[mikeh]

jogs, on 2013-August-02, 10:25, said:

Looks like a hand from a bridge book on defense.
Win the ♠A and return the ♥K while the
spade suit is still blocked.

Looks more like a hand from 'unlucky expert'. Consider KQ Qxx AKJx Axxx. I doubt that a WC declarer would win the first heart play on your defence.

[JLOGIC]

rhm, on 2013-August-02, 05:32, said:

♠KQ,♥Jx,♦AKQJT,♣A985

I'm sure he'd open 2N with that, maybe xx hearts (might still open 2N but might not). That is a pretty specific hand.

[jogs]

mikeh, on 2013-August-02, 10:47, said:

Looks more like a hand from 'unlucky expert'. Consider KQ Qxx AKJx Axxx. I doubt that a WC declarer would win the first heart play on your defence.

What if declarer held KQ, Qxx, AKJxx, Axx.
Now we can win 3 club tricks.

[mikeh]

jogs, on 2013-August-02, 13:21, said:

What if declarer held KQ, Qxx, AKJxx, Axx.
Now we can win 3 club tricks.

he doesn't: partner would never discourage in clubs with 3 cashing tricks in the suit.

[Fluffy]

actually that hand even if possible is irrelevant, he is never making the contract.

[benlessard]

JLOGIC, on 2013-August-01, 21:40, said:

Yeah I don't play smith, I thought it was more about how much you like your own lead rather than how much you like other suits, so with 3 clubs partner would say he didn't like it. Whatever, ducking 2 spades seems clear no matter how you look at it.

Agree 100%

Hes assuming we know the pts count so with D T9xx C QJ9 he will make a neg smith for sure.

[sathyab]

Playing Smith, doesn't count take precedence when you are looking at this dummy ? Looks like which ♠ to win or how many to duck could be critical when there's only one sure entry outside the suit.