[y66]

Scoring: IMP

2H P 3H 3N AP

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This problem is from board 46 of last night's Vanderbilt match between the Diamond and Nickell teams.

Fred G (East) led the heart 10. Eric Rodwell (North) played the queen from dummy. Brad Moss (West) played the 8 and Rodwell played the 6.

At trick 2, Rodwell led the spade 9 from dummy. Moss won the king with Rodwell playing the 4 and Fred the 5.

At trick 3, Moss led the heart 4. Rodwell played the 7. Fred won with the 9. And Rodwell pitched a club from dummy.

Now what?

Hand viewer

[Hanoi5]

I think it depends on agreement what partner would play with KQ or AK in spades in second position (if he were to play a honor instead of a small one). I believe the standard is to play the highest card. I'm playing ♥K but I'm usually lost in this sort of problem. Even at the table.

(inb4LOL)

Edit: I just saw the hands...

[y66]

As Sergey Gromov (Dinos1) noted during the match, the key to getting this right is to count declarer's tricks.

Here's the complete hand and some of the vugraph commentary:

me argent: east must shift
athene: ♣ shift sets up enough tricks for the defence
Dinos1: yes def has time for ♣ switch after taking ♥K
me argent: hamman didnt
me argent: think play indicates it
Dinos1: just count declarer's tricks
athene: i think East might be able to work this one out - give Moss ♠AK and Rodwell everything else of interest....
athene: you just need to play partner for ♣J
me argent: north must have ♦AK
Dinos1: 2♥2♠4♦ and ♣A - 9
Dinos1: 9 if let him set ♠
Dinos1: so the only hope - ♣J
athene: clearly he is just trying to set up his ♠Q for number nine
me argent: well thought out
athene: in the other room Zia falsecarded with the ♠A first time
athene: rather than the ♠K
athene: this might have caused Hamman to misjudge the hand
me argent: im sure it didnt help
Dinos1: wd
athene: an excellent example of counting declarer's winners
athene: many people would just automatically clear the hearts, hoping to get in with a club
athene: but you will only do that after declarer has cashed his nine

[CSGibson]

playing standard count signals (and thus playing partner for 2 hearts), I play the king of hearts, showing partner a spade card. If he is on his game, partner will pitch his spade honor, and I will almost have to get in with either clubs or spades. If Moss's signal has a different meaning, then I'll have to rethink the hand, but I really like my first line. Of course, declarer probably runs his 4 diamonds, squeezing and endplaying me, so I'm going down in defeat with my line unless I play partner for the jack of clubs anyway, so I might as well shift to the 4 of clubs.

[dburn]

CSGibson, on Mar 24 2009, 01:22 AM, said:

playing standard count signals (and thus playing partner for 2 hearts), I play the king of hearts, showing partner a spade card.  If he is on his game, partner will pitch his spade honor, and I will almost have to get in with either clubs or spades.  If Moss's signal has a different meaning, then I'll have to rethink the hand, but I really like my first line.

It is possible, I suppose, that if Eric Rodwell had four hearts and knew that your partner had two, he would have won the second round of hearts, rather than allowing your partner to be brilliant at his expense.

As to that ace of spades: if I remember correctly, Hamman and Soloway used to play that when you split honours in front of declarer, you "split high", so that from KQ you played the king. It is possible that this, rather than his usual desire to confuse everyone including himself, was what motivated Zia to play the ace from ♠AK.