[FelicityR]

I haven't been playing much bridge lately, but it does give me a chance to watch Vugraph. This interesting hand came up - East/West are top world class players - but they didn't get the defence right. I am interested in how other players would tackle the defence, given the information they have before them, namely the bidding and the play to the first two tricks.

I'll post the whole board in a couple of days' time. Team IMPs. In the other room, the same contract was reached with North as declarer, and was made on a favourable lead - that's all I'm saying. get the defence right here and you gain 9 IMPs.

---

The play to the first two tricks are as follows:

West leads ♠9 (shows the 10) - ♠2 - ♠5 (count) - ♠A
Trick 2 - ♦5 - ♦2 - ♦Q - ♦K

You're on lead now: what card do you now play and why? And, as always, thank you for your replies.

[Cyberyeti]

Partner has 9-11 points (if it's 11 it's not an 11 he felt like opening), 3 hearts and appears to be 3334 with a club suit he doesn't want to lead 3325 with ♦Jx or (do we know if NS ever open 1N with a stiff ace ?, if they do, a club switch in the hope that this forces S to cash the spades prematurely and make some awkward discards becomes attractive) 4333 or 4324 with ♦Jx if S can have a stiff A♠.

There are holdings where you need to lead a club hoping that you get to win the diamond and pick the suit up by leading another club, there are also holdings where partner has say ♥KJx and you need to protect him from an endplay while he still has exits.

[FelicityR]

Here's the whole hand. The odd thing is that a world champion West actually switched to the ♥2 at trick three. Is there any logic in doing this with different South and West hands? I'll be honest, I could see all four hands when kibitzing so could see that a ♣ switch was needed, but I still feel that if I were in the East seat I would have found it, too.

---

[Cyberyeti]

FelicityR, on 2019-November-18, 15:24, said:

Here's the whole hand. The odd thing is that a world champion West actually switched to the ♥2 at trick three. Is there any logic in doing this with different South and West hands? I'll be honest, I could see all four hands when kibitzing so could see that a ♣ switch was needed, but I still feel that if I were in the East seat I would have found it, too.

---

Switching to the ♥2 can matter where declarer has KJ8x where he probably plays an honour

[FelicityR]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-November-18, 17:27, said:

Switching to the ♥2 can matter where declarer has KJ8x where he probably plays an honour

Yes, there is that scenario, but doesn't that then mark South with the ♣QJ or ♣A and if he had one of those combinations, surely he would have played on ♣s at trick 2? (Maybe I am wrong here, but playing South specifically for ♥KJ8x is a longshot, besides West may have an option of a ♣ lead not holding ♣AQ108 instead of leading dummy's known ♠ suit.)

That's why I found it an interesting hand because through some logical deduction, a ♣ switch at trick three looked the winning line.

[mikeh]

I have sympathy for east.

I am not a 'top WC player', so I may be analyzing differently than did our east, but here is what I might be thinking: I apologize for the detail, but this is how I think at the table:

1. Partner probably has 3 spades: 109x or 974. It is unlikely that he'd lead from 9x, but at trick 1 I can't say it's impossible

2. At trick 2, declarer can be assumed to hold 4 diamonds to the A. Either Axxx or AJxx: note that it is wrong, with AJxx, to blow a dummy entry, in either black suit, to take a diamond hook: with AJxx, the correct play is usually low to the Queen. Since I now 'know' that declarer has 4=4 reds (or 4=5), I strengthen my view that partner has 3 spades....while he may stay away from a club lead from good clubs with 4, I think he'd surely lead that suit with 5, since on this auction we could have a 9 card club fit. For the same reason, I place declarer with 4=4 reds, not 4=5.

3. Ok, now what? Here is where I would be taking a LONG time, since I have to construct various layouts consistent with the auction, and try to predict the play...all not knowing, for example, if declarer has AJxx or Axxx in diamonds, which is highly significant.

Even with more time thinking about this than I'd have at the table (and I'd taken a good 10 minutes to play to a trick on occasion), I am unsure of what is right from East's perspective. Note that the club spots may be crucial....give South Q8x, and a club (especially the 9) causes issues for the defence. Give south Q108, and a club is horrendous, and so on. But a club obviously can win, so we have to consider that suit...we would therefore lead a club unless we can see a possibly winning alternative.

How about this: Ax KJxx AJxx Q10x?

We lead a low heart, implying values....don't worry, partner can never be misled. If he can't count all the hcp at this stage, declarer will have extras and no defence will work.

Would you seriously consider playing low here? Maybe, and hats off to you...it is perhaps easier if east has taken as long as I would have.

If not, play an honour, have west win and west plays a spade....you're in dummy with a sinking feeling. If east has the club Ace, you have to cash the spades and then what? What are you pitching, for one thing?

It gets murky, depending on that declarer plays, but he is almost surely going down at this point. Note that partner is pitching behind declarer, on the last spade, and will have a perfect count on the hand.

Say the hand was like that, and east switched to the club 9 (or low, and declarer played the 8): would we then have commentators suggesting that he ought to have switched to a heart, as the only hope for a plus?

I thank Felicity for the post, because I think this hand shows how difficult defence can be. Of course, the actual east may not have thought along the lines I've set out here...and may have thought of things that didn't even occur to me.

[foobar]

FelicityR, on 2019-November-16, 05:58, said:

I haven't been playing much bridge lately, but it does give me a chance to watch Vugraph. This interesting hand came up - East/West are top world class players - but they didn't get the defence right. I am interested in how other players would tackle the defence, given the information they have before them, namely the bidding and the play to the first two tricks.

I'll post the whole board win a couple of days' time. Team IMPs. In the other room, the same contract was reached with North as declarer, and was made on a favourable lead - that's all I'm saying. get the defence right here and you gain 9 IMPs.

---

The play to the first two tricks are as follows:

West leads ♠9 (shows the 10) - ♠2 - ♠5 (count) - ♠A
Trick 2 - ♦5 - ♦2 - ♦Q - ♦K

You're on lead now: what card do you now play and why? And, as always, thank you for your replies.

Another thing to consider is whether West was giving an honest count signal (assuming standard count), or whether ♦2 was a suit preference for clubs (since it's clearly hopeless to continue ♠).

[FelicityR]

mikeh, on 2019-November-19, 11:21, said:

I thank Felicity for the post, because I think this hand shows how difficult defence can be. Of course, the actual east may not have thought along the lines I've set out here...and may have thought of things that didn't even occur to me.

And thank you for your detailed reply, Mike. I personally find defensive hands more interesting than declarer plays, even ones with complicated squeeze plays, as defence needs a partnership to work in harmony, to convey information with signals and discards. Even though, on this hand, East has little to go on at trick three.

[smerriman]

FelicityR, on 2019-November-19, 15:10, said:

as defence needs a partnership to work in harmony, to convey information with signals and discards.

On this note, if East is trying to show count at trick 1 as described, why would they play the 5? Seems a pretty ambiguous choice.

[FelicityR]

smerriman, on 2019-November-19, 16:31, said:

On this note, if East is trying to show count at trick 1 as described, why would they play the 5? Seems a pretty ambiguous choice.

I assumed it was count - I didn't have the partnership's CC available. Similarly West's card on trick two, the ♦2 (as foobar commentated on) may or may not have had significance. I believe the point of this hand is that whatever methods East/West were using - and they are an experienced world championship partnership - didn't bear fruit defensively.

That is possibly due to small number of tricks already taken and East being put to some form of guess at trick three. As mikeh's extensive analysis has shown, it is not so clear cut switching to a ♣ at trick three. I wondered why East, having used his only likely entry of the ♦K made the switch to ♥s instead of ♣s?

The way I saw it (rightly or wrongly) that when South replied 2♥ to Stayman, there was more likelihood that that four (even five card possibly, depending on their methods) ♥ suit had more solidity than the four card ♣ suit in dummy, namely ♣K753. That's why it seemed 'natural' (for me) to switch to a ♣ at trick three.