[han]

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You lead the spade jack, dummy plays the 7, partner the 8 (UDCA) and declarer the king. Declarer then places the jack of hearts on the table. How do you defend?

[mikeh]

My kneejerk reaction was that I'm not playing the K, in case declarer has QJx in the suit. But..

We can place partner with 4-6 hcp (more or less, since who can trust a 15-17 opener these days?). We're not building our setting tricks in spades. If partner has the heart A, he has little outside, and the club Q would be hookable by declarer if that's his card.

Otoh, if he has Qxxx in diamonds and the heart A, we can maybe beat this but only if partner has Ax.

So I rise with the K and play AJ diamonds, hoping for a layout such as

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[JLOGIC]

Indeed...only other way I can see to beat it is if declarer is 5233 and partner has aq doubleton of hearts, that would suck.

[gnasher]

In Mike's layout we can still beat the contract after playing low on the heart. Partner wins and plays back a spade, and we get our spades going before declarer can set up both red-suit tricks.

Even if partner has a singleton spade, we're still OK. Partner switches to a diamond, we play the jack, declarer ducks, and we switch back to spades.

Declarer can't do us any harm by running clubs, because he lacks a quick entry to the hearts, so on the last club we can throw a heart.

[han]

Partner had 82 x Qxxxx A10xxx. Different honors but the same theme that mikeh gave.

[gnasher]

han, on 2012-December-21, 04:22, said:

Partner had 82 x Qxxxx A10xxx. Different honors but the same theme that mikeh gave.

I think declarer misplayed it. At trick two he should play ♣Q (unblocking the 9), club to the king, which partner has to take. If partner now attacks diamonds, declarer ducks the jack, then cashes black cards to strip-squeeze us. If partner continues spades, it's similar: declarer cashes some clubs to strip us of the small diamond, then plays a diamond himself.

Of course, I'm not saying that we shouldn't play him for this hand. However, there are other hands he could have where it's right to play low, eg KQxx QJ Qxx AQxx.

[han]

At the table my partner played the spade 2 at trick 1. I won the king of hearts and continued spades, which seemed obvious. My partner readily apologized.

I don't know why declarer played the heart jack, I didn't ask her. Obviously she can make it by playing clubs immediately. Maybe she had seen the spade 2 as well and counted on a spade continuation. Perhaps she would also have made the contract if partner had played high at trick 1. I posted the hand because I was wondering if I should have found the winning defense if partner had played high.

[FrancesHinden]

han, on 2012-December-21, 08:33, said:

At the table my partner played the spade 2 at trick 1. I won the king of hearts and continued spades, which seemed obvious. My partner readily apologized.

I don't know why declarer played the heart jack, I didn't ask her. Obviously she can make it by playing clubs immediately. Maybe she had seen the spade 2 as well and counted on a spade continuation. Perhaps she would also have made the contract if partner had played high at trick 1. I posted the hand because I was wondering if I should have found the winning defense if partner had played high.

I think you are being a bit harsh on partner. Had you discussed whether your primary signal was count or attitude?

[han]

I was don't see why I was harsh on partner. Of course we have signalling agreements, and he knew he had given the wrong signal, hence the apology. But it's not like I've never given the wrong signal. He apologized before I said anything so there was nothing to be harsh about.

I thought that the defensive problem was interesting, isn't it normal to think about whether I would have found the diamond switch if partner had played the spade 8 and declarer had played the same way?. I don't know the declarer well but she is considered a very talented Dutch player. I don't know why she played as she did. Perhaps she was counting on me to duck the heart and would play have played on clubs next. Perhaps she saw the signal and expected me to continue spades. Perhaps she just didn't give it enough thought, I didn't ask her.