[rogerclee]

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2N = 19+-21

You decide to lead the ♥J, rusinow (agree?). Declarer thinks for awhile and it goes low low low, partner playing the lowest outstanding spot (UDCA).

1) How do you defend?

2) If you're having trouble with #1, here's a similar defensive problem. I tell you that you have the Jx of hearts and 11 other cards outside hearts that you can't see. You have to play a suit. Which suit would you play?

[Hanoi5]

#2 sounds a little like throwing the cards at your partner after he blows a hand.

[inquiry]

Here is the hand... PArtner has four heart KTxx and no other face cards (south needs ♥A, ♠KJ, ♦KQ and ♣AQJ for his 20 points). I shift to a low diamond.

I don't understand why declarer with ♥Ax didn't cover the ♥J when holding the ♥98 in dummy.

Why diamond? Can't afford a spade, a heart isn't going to get partner into the lead, a club can' help as declarer as ♣AQJ(x)... even if he has only three clubs, partner has no entry to his eventual long club. IF partner had the ♦Ten or any four diamonds, a diamond now will be helpful. I will worry about rather or not to unblock the ♦Nine on a later round of the suit.

[Phil]

South opened a 3rd seat 2N so I'm not taking that too seriously. I can't think of any heart holding where it's technically correct to duck but he knows my lead is shortness and maybe it's J alone and partner doesn't have an entry or I will do something stupid with Jx which is always possible.

I think declarer has something like Kx x Kx AQJxxxxx.

I'm continuing hearts. Maybe we can make 3N on defense.

I have UI that your opponents were stuck heading into this match. It probably makes a difference here.

[winkle]

Do intermediate real-life defensive problems exist?

I'd switch to a spade. The heart duck suggests declarer is afraid of a spade switch from partner's side. And the way he killed the heart suit suggests that his sources of tricks are elsewhere -- looking at my hand it must mean he's loaded in the minors. And his heart duck wouldn't make sense to me if he has as much as KJx in spades, so I think partner has the spade jack.

However, a spade switch is only necessary if declarer can set up 8 minor suit tricks, which means either six clubs or five clubs and KQTx of diamonds. Normally those are not the most likely layouts but it seems the clues above are strong enough for me to play for that.

I don't understand question 2 so I won't attempt to answer it.

[rogerclee]

Phil, on 2014-May-05, 17:21, said:

I have UI that your opponents were stuck heading into this match. It probably makes a difference here.

Two things:

1) Declarer (me) definitely wasn't swinging, I was up at the half, the set had been pretty plain, and my team was a favorite to win by just playing good bridge.
2) I made the declarer 3rd seat when in reality it was 4th. This wasn't for any real reason except I didn't want to discuss the merits of opening a good 11-count in 1st seat r/r.

[karlson]

What would we have led from JTx? (well ok, maybe we'd never lead a heart, but I don't much care for the lead from Jx either)

[kenberg]

On second thought, I am deleting this until I have my third thought.

[kenberg]

no comment

[uday]

My instinct is to switch to the ST in case declarer has Kx Ax KQxx AQJxx or Kx Ax KQx AQJxxx

Pard's supposed encouragement is giving me pause but i assume he can't be hinting at clubs ( knowing that he has no entries and that I have 2 H ) so I'll assume he just has nothing to say.

What if declarer is Kx Ax Kx AQJxxxx ? I'll say sorry and pretend I don't care.

So it is the ST for me.

[inquiry]

uday, on 2014-May-05, 21:24, said:

My instinct is to switch to the ST in case declarer has Kx Ax KQxx AQJxx or Kx Ax KQx AQJxxx

Pard's supposed encouragement is giving me pause but i assume he can't be hinting at clubs ( knowing that he has no entries and that I have 2 H ) so I'll assume he just has nothing to say.

What if declarer is Kx Ax Kx AQJxxxx ? I'll say sorry and pretend I don't care.

So it is the ST for me.

This would explain ducking the ♥J.... I think you may have the right solution. Can I change my ♦ shift?

[SteveMoe]

Suspect partner has ♥K10x, and Declarer ♥Axx.
Partner has nothing more than the K, so I will lead the ♠Q expecting partner to win the ♥K while there are still 3 ♠ ricks to be taken. This requires declarer to have only 8 tricks (1♠, 1♥, 6 minor tricks) before returning to the ♥suit. 3=3=4=3?

Continuing ♥ wrecks our timing and limits our take to 4 or fewer tricks.

Would be good to know the pivot card agreed for Rusinow. Many play the 9 as the pivot, so the J is unambiguous.

[kenberg]

I have said some (deleted) stupid things already but let me try for some more. I will start with question 2. The answer to what would I lead is that I would usually lead something other than the Jack of hearts. But the J might be attractive with the spade holding that I have. So we must allow for declarer perhaps guessing my spade holding.

Here is why this is relevant. I want to allow for declarer holding KJ of spades. This sounds crazy since then he has niine cards in the minors (I assuming his hearts are Ax) and therefore eight tricks in the minors so surely he would just play the heart Q from the dummy at trick 1, take partner's K, knock out the diamond ace, and hope for the best in spades. He would do this rather than what he did, because a spade switch will kill him regardless of how they are distributed.

Ah, but maybe the lead of the heart J convinces him that spades are AQ on his left. Then the "obvious" line is hopeless. So he plays as he did, hoping that the spade switch is not found.

This seems bizarre to me, I never would find this play holding KJ tight in spades and I never would work it out as a defender if declarer did it. But I can't see other explanations. If declarer has KJx of spdes then he only has eight minor suit cards and therefore only seven minor suit tricks, meaning that he must get two tricks in the majors. It seems that the best way to go about that is to cover the J of hearts at trick 1. Exactly bow it would go after that would depend on his minor suit holdings but I would imagine that after JQKA of heart he would sooner or later lead a heart toward the board.

So I now think declarer holds KJ tight in spades so I lead a spade. This is only because I can't think of anything else.

[Phil]

Yes Udays solution does fit the hand. WD.