[lamford]

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Partner leads the ten of diamonds (high from doubleton, usually third from Txx), and dummy plays the king. Over to you?

Spingold Quarterfinal; IMP scoring. If it helps, declarer is Madala, partnering Bocchi, and in the other room Gromov will be on lead against Hamman, presumably against the same contract, and he leads low from a doubleton. This is board six of segment 1 of a 64 board match, and the early boards do not feel great for you.

[Fluffy]

We cannot defeat unless partner has 2 spades, for partner to have 2 spades declarer has to be 6-4, if declarer had 4 clubs he would be void in hearts which is unlikely, so win the ace and return one.

There is also another reason, if declarer has ♠Kx we need to score the ruff now or declarer might play from the top.

Also leading ♣A form ♠Ax ♦10x ♣Axxx(x) is an option.

[lamford]

Fluffy, on 2013-August-10, 16:44, said:

We cannot defeat unless partner has 2 spades, for partner to have 2 spades declarer has to be 6-4, if declarer had 4 clubs he would be void in hearts which is unlikely, so win the ace and return one.

There is also another reason, if declarer has ♠Kx we need to score the ruff now or declarer might play from the top.

Also leading ♣A form ♠Ax ♦10x ♣Axxx(x) is an option.

I agree with you. In one room, on a similar auction, the T♦ could not be a doubleton and the defender rose and gave his partner a ruff. In this room the defender ducked, which surprised me, coming as it did from a world-class player. It would seem that in such situations it is always right to play partner for a singleton. Playing him for a doubleton also requires him, as you suggest, to have ♠ Ax as a minimum. Another small problem is that partner cannot always tell you have the ace of diamonds.

[PhilKing]

It's fair to say Madala did not have a standard 3♠ opening. That said, East made a nullo defence (winning and switching to a trump).

[lamford]

PhilKing, on 2013-August-12, 09:59, said:

It's fair to say Madala did not have a standard 3♠ opening. That said, East made a nullo defence (winning and switching to a trump).

While I was watching, he ducked, playing the 8♦, and this accords with the Vugraph archive. There was no longer any defence, and I think declarer claimed shortly after knocking out the ace of spades. But I agree re the non-standard opener!