[Gerben42]

Scoring: IMP

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Auction:

West North East South
------- ------- ------- 1♠
Pass 1NT 2♥ Pass
3♣ 3♦ 4♣ 5♦
5♥ Dbl Pass Pass
Pass

You lead ♠A and find this dummy. How do you defend?

*Adv+ please answer in hidden*

[FrancesHinden]

As I've got leads on the brain at the moment: will partner give attitude or count on this lead?

Spoiler

At first glance this looks like cash two top spades, then the king of diamonds, then play a third spade.

[mikeh]

Can we safely assume no 3 card ♠ fit by partner? We don't know if this is a 4 card major system or a 5 card one, nor whether 1N was forcing. I want to assume that partner holds no more than 2♠, but I am learning to be aware of cultural bias

[Gerben42]

Your system is BBO Basic, so partner does not have 3♠ for his 1NT bid. In principle he will give attitude, if you want to lead the King for count I'll allow that too.

[ArcLight]

Since we know pard has 2 (or maybe 1) Spades, we don't need Attitude or Count.
So pard can signal suit preference, though that can be confusing depending on his/her spots if they are adjacent and low or high. (Ex: 34 its hard for us to decipher a signal).


♠ Ace
♠ King

assume pards carding order is suit preference. Hi-Low = Dimes. Low -Hi = Clubs

if its hi-low, cash the ♦ King, and play the 3rd round of ♠.
(avoid Declarer playing dime as a loser on loser)

If its low-hi, just play the 3rd round of ♠.

[sfbp]

I'm not adv+, so I'm gonna post as is....

Declarer has 3+ clubs for sure. And 4 spades. If you could be sure that partner holding the Q of spades would play it on the first round (which I would be because I led the K not the A) then it looks safe enough to attempt to promote pard's ♥J. ♠♠♠, then. He might not have the ♥J though.

However if pard has a minor suit ace it only matters if it is ♦A (pard will always get the ♣A). Even then it might get ruffed. So no rush to lead clubs if pard has ♣A.

Assume for a moment the defence's only asset is the ♥K. Declarer having either void or A in ♦, pard is 2-2-7-2 (declarer is 4-6-0-3) and not even a Jack in his hand outside ♦.

If you lead a ♣ now declarer can take it in dummy and finesse ♥. So, suppose I switch to a club at trick 2. Is declarer smart enough to play the ♥A at trick 3, because I switched to clubs?

If declarer is 4-5-0-4 (with AQJ9x) then you gotta lead a club NOW.
If partner has singleton ♣A, even better. But even a small singleton makes it difficult for declarer.

If declarer is 4-5-1-3 then declarer has to play the A of hearts first to make his contract. If pard has as much as Jxx the J will make when you get in with the second spade as you can NOW go for the overruff. Declarer cannot drop Jxx so he has to get to dummy.

Leading a club only loses when pard has exactly Jx in ♥, and declarer has a losing diamond. Now declarer lays down AQ of ♥ and runs the clubs. Game over.

But PARTNER doubled 5♥. Why? Because he needs a club lead. Duh where was I wasting time the last 5 minutes breathing heavily......?

I lead a ♣ immediately. Down 2.

[Gerben42]

Spoiler

The defender who actually had this problem played ♠A, ♠K, ♠, ruffed with the ♥10 and not overruffed. Then declarer played a ♥ to the Ace, dropping the King. He then claimed he was so unlucky.

Instead, after cashing ♠AK, play ♦K next.

Declarer will not find your ♥K when he ruffs the ♦ (he was 4504) since he thinks your plan was to stop declarer from discarding his ♦ loser on the 3rd round of ♠.

Moral of the story: If you see that declarer is about to go wrong, avoid leading him to the right path. Now if ♦K holds it gets trickier.

If you now lead a ♣ declarer may see through your plan so you might just as well try out if partner has a ♥ honor after all (even though that seems unlikely).