[inquiry]

They linked in one of the defensive play hands into the news and I have been asked if I could provide some advanced/expert defensive hands. Ok, I will try. If this hand is in the wrong forum, and should be with the intermediate problems, let me know. If it is inappropriate for whatever reason, we don't want a link to it in news!

MATCHPOINT. Opponents are excellent card players, in addition, south will have extra values for his 3NT bid beyond just the promised long diamond suit. To see the cards played so far, click the NEXT Button.

You are playing UDCA with lavinthal discards. For better or worse you start with a top from nothing spade, dummy plays low and your partner plays the TWO and south wins the JACK.

You duck at least the first diamond, partner shows out playing the ♥7 (confirming the interest shown in spades at trick one).

A low diamond is continued to trick three and dummy will play the king no matter which diamond you play. If you win the 2nd diamond, what do you return to trick four? Does partner' discard here make a difference? If so, what your return be if it was the ♥6, ♥3, ♣7, ♠7.

If you hold off to the third round of diamonds, what do you return and which if any combination of the possible discards from ♥6, ♥3, ♣7, ♠7 would change your play.

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This post has been edited by inquiry: 2011-September-15, 15:47
Reason for edit: fix trick one

[wclass___]

Spoiler

If partner doesn't discard many ♥, then take 3rd ♦ and exit with ♥K or else with ♣?
Basically ♥K should work if declarer has singleton ♥ or xx, but clubs might cut declarers communication if he has ♠KJx♥Qx♦QJxxxx♣AQ (which they might open 1NT anyway)

[FrancesHinden]

The play in the hand diagram is not consistent with your write-up: did south win the first spade with the jack or the king?
Also, the auction makes no sense - North raised 2D to 3D, which is usually played as non-forcing, on a game-forcing hand, and we are told that South's 3NT now shows extra values? If 3D was forcing, what was South supposed to do with a minimum?

[inquiry]

 FrancesHinden, on 2011-September-15, 15:09, said:

The play in the hand diagram is not consistent with your write-up: did south win the first spade with the jack or the king?
Also, the auction makes no sense - North raised 2D to 3D, which is usually played as non-forcing, on a game-forcing hand, and we are told that South's 3NT now shows extra values? If 3D was forcing, what was South supposed to do with a minimum?

3♦ was non-forcing. Not sure why dummy (north) bid it, but there you go. Perhaps the problem is flawed because of the bad bidding. Real world deal, I might have picked the wrong auction, but nearly everyone played 3NT by south after a 1♦=1♥=2♦ start. NMF would have been better by north.

[MrAce]

 inquiry, on 2011-September-15, 16:57, said:

Real world deal, I might have picked the wrong auction, but nearly everyone played 3NT by south after a 1♦=1♥=2♦ start. NMF would have been better by north.

I cant think of a defense that will provide us tricks except than pd holding Axxxxx ♠ or T9xxxx ♠ + ♣A Declarer is known to not have 4♠, this makes pd to hold at least 5♠. Declarer has 5♦+1♥+1♠ that he already took as tricks, if pd has ♣ AQ and only 5♠ declarer is cold, If pd has ♠ A and only 5 ♠ declarer is still cold, i just woke up this is too easy and i must be missing something .

[han]

Partner won't hold 109-6th of spades, that would give declarer AKJ-doubleton.

Declarer is cold on any layout of the cards, but it's matchpoints.

[gnasher]

Partner can't have ♠K109xx/A9xxx + ♣A - he would have overcalled, and declarer would have switched to clubs after partner showed out on the first diamond.

Hence I can't see any reason to play a spade. (If I do play a spade, however, I should make sure that partner knows I don't have another diamond stop - I don't want him to duck with Axxxx xxx - Qxxxx and then get strip-squeezed.)

I agree with wclass, who usually seems to be right about these things.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2011-September-16, 04:38

[MrAce]

 han, on 2011-September-16, 04:25, said:

Partner won't hold 109-6th of spades, that would give declarer AKJ-doubleton.

Declarer is cold on any layout of the cards, but it's matchpoints.

True, i knew something was off with it, and just noticed its matchpoints. AT9xxx ♠ still only way to defeat but i doubt anyone would pass twice with this white vs red. Then it makes sense to me now what wclass suggested, we can try to avoid overtricks.

[phil_20686]

This hand is all a bit strange. Declarer is known not to have 4Clubs. Even if you play the style where you would rebid 2D with 6-4 and a min, the raise to 3N precludes that possibility. Thus, why did partner not through a club?

Moreover, you do not need a lot for a passed hand overcall at the one level, white vs red. Even ATxxx Qxx - xxxxx would be enough for me.

Does the signalling style show where his points are, or just that spades would be a "safe" exit. xxxxx Qxxxx - Qxx might not want a heart or a club switch. I find it pretty unthinkable that any hand with a HT9xxx spades and a void would not find a one level overcall as a passed hand at the one level.

A hand that would not overcall for me is one like T9xxx Qxxxx - Qxx, which would also explain the lack of a club pitch. This would give declarer AKJ - QJTxxx Axxx which is not consistent.

Suppose that declarer has KJx x QJTxxx ATx, Now after a spade return he has 5 diamonds 2 spades 2 clubs and one heart. He probably cannot afford to try to guess the clubs provided partner ducks the spade. If we returned KH we would have 3 tricks to cash when we got in and he would be forced to guess the clubs if he wants ten.

Feels like the KH is the right defense.

[han]

Partner's carding makes it clear that he has a spade honor. Of course, he cannot have the AK as he would have overcalled, and I'm going to assume that he would have bid with H109-6th as well.

So partner has A109xx or K109xx. That means he cannot have the club ace, or both missing queens. The heart discard suggests that he has A109xx of spades and the club queen. Declarer would have bid 3H over 3D with queen-third of hearts, so declarer has either 1 or 2 hearts. If partner discards the heart 6 next (UDCA count I assume) then declarer has the stiff queen and I would play the heart king, likely holding declarer to 10 tricks.

If partner plays a low heart then declarer has Qx. In that case I'll play the spade 3, which should wake up partner to step up with the ace and play another to avoid being endplayed. Hopefully we can still hold partner to 10 tricks.

If partner discards the club 7 (I assume also count, I consider it standard that the second discard is count but some may think differently.) then declarer has A9 tight of clubs and Qx of hearts, so I'd exit with the spade 3.

If partner discards the spade 7 I'm going to hit him afterwards, it is a very thoughtless discard.

[gnasher]

 han, on 2011-September-17, 03:41, said:

If partner discards the spade 7 I'm going to hit him afterwards, it is a very thoughtless discard.

If he does that, you can just hold off again, to see if he does something more useful on the fourth diamond. That is a good idea anyway, because it will ensure that he doesn't play you for ♦AQxx.

[inquiry]

Several people got it right, han explained how to work it out logically at the table. Declarer did indeed have singleton heart Queen and the road to a tie for a matchpoint top was to (when you won the diamond ace), exit with the heart king. You can be certain this is the right defense when partner eventually gives count in heart suit. You tie only a pair that had the hand iwth the singleton heart queen as dummy in Notrump with a opening lead of a low spade from the other side of the table. There finding the heart king was much, much easier.