[BunnyGo]

This hand came up in a university bridge club (low key game with a mix of players from beginners to advanced).

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The North player was a beginner (first time playing) to explain the bidding. The South and West players were advanced players. The lead was the ten of spades, and East won the trick with the Ace (do you agree with this play?). If you do take the Ace, what do you lead next?

[karlson]

I would shift to a club. This seems necessary if we need to set up three club tricks before partner's diamond entry is knocked out. If we need to switch to hearts, we'll still have another chance.

[rhm]

karlson, on 2011-January-19, 18:32, said:

I would shift to a club. This seems necessary if we need to set up three club tricks before partner's diamond entry is knocked out. If we need to switch to hearts, we'll still have another chance.

I am not convinced.
If you switch to ♥ and partner has a ♦ entry, you will almost always come to at least 2 ♥ tricks, a ♦ trick and the two black aces for one down. Even if declarer has 4 ♦ tricks he will have to develop a trick in ♣ eventually and he will probably go after ♦ first. If he first plays a ♣ from the table, which you duck of course, you are certainly not worse of than if you had switched to ♣ yourself.
Since declarer may have 2♥ stoppers, you can not afford to wait.

Switch to a small ♥. The contract will almost certainly go down with only one entry in partner's hand

Rainer Herrmann

[karlson]

rhm, on 2011-January-20, 04:01, said:

If he first plays a ♣ from the table, which you duck of course, you are certainly not worse of than if you had switched to ♣ yourself.

That's true as long as we don't immediately give up an 8th or 9th trick by switching to hearts when declarer has the Q. A club might also work when passive defense is required. For instance imagine KJxx Txx AKQx Kx, or KJxx Qx Axx KQJx (declarer wins the heart plays clubs and eventually strip squeezes us out of the HK.).

Obviously I can also construct hands where heart is right (KJxx Qx AKxx KQx seems to be what you're afraid of, KJxx xx AKQx KQx is also something plausible). It seems like a little bit of a guess.

Honestly none of these hands give partner much of a double and I'm as aggressive as anyone at doubling here!

[rhm]

karlson, on 2011-January-20, 04:39, said:

That's true as long as we don't immediately give up an 8th or 9th trick by switching to hearts when declarer has the Q. A club might also work when passive defense is required. For instance imagine KJxx Txx AKQx Kx, or KJxx Qx Axx KQJx (declarer wins the heart plays clubs and eventually strip squeezes us out of the HK.).

Obviously I can also construct hands where heart is right (KJxx Qx AKxx KQx seems to be what you're afraid of, KJxx xx AKQx KQx is also something plausible). It seems like a little bit of a guess.

Honestly none of these hands give partner much of a double and I'm as aggressive as anyone at doubling here!

My congratulations, quite ingenious constructions, creating a strip end play in hearts against East.
But they have little to do with your original reasoning for switching to ♣.
On the first layout my guess is that very few would lead anything but a club and few would double.
On the second declarer would have to play with mirrors to succeed
The trouble with your constructions is that partner does not hold an entry, which I think he should have given his double and this is certainly at least very likely.

I still think a ♥ is indicated and in my opinion and it is not close.

Rainer Herrmann

[cherdano]

If partner's diamond entry is the king or queen I don't think declarer would attack diamonds first if he has a choice. He can see that his LHO is the dangerous hand. But I have no idea what declarer bid 1NT on, what partner doubled on, and what dummy invited on.
On balance, I guess Rainer is right as there are many hands where declarer doesn't have a choice and has to attack diamonds first (as playing diamonds first gives him an entry back to dummy).

[dake50]

C2 switch.
Even an on-lead game double suggests dummy's first bid suit.

[OleBerg]

Duck the first trick quite clearly. No shift has that much haste on this hand, unless declarer has 6 diamonds (Which is not that far-fetched, and will make my entire defence look silly. But ***** happens, and I wont cater to it). I want signals from partner and/or other information, so I encourage in spades at trick one, and if I am forced to make a discard, it will be another spade. If clubs are essential, partner should be able to figure out, that a clubswitch is "safe" from his hand. (Giving declarer an essential guess is an illusion; if he has ♣KJ, he is bound to get it right almost all the time.)

If I am somehow forced to take the first spade, my continuation will be a crude ♣A, to get a signal from partner. If he encourages I continue, if not, it is a heart. (The arguments are the same as above.)

[han]

I'd duck the first trick.

[Phil]

I'm lousy at putting together ingenious constructions after staring at the ceiling for 20 minutes after winning the ♠A. In general, I would rather retain a major tenace. Crude analysis I know.

Duck the 1st trick and try to get more information.

What happens then?

[kayin801]

Can someone tell me a hand that partner would double on with 3 spades that would pass 1NT instead of raising while white? Not to mention they seem to have only 3 or 4 points. I'm so confused right now.

[BunnyGo]

kayin801, on 2011-January-20, 19:26, said:

Can someone tell me a hand that partner would double on with 3 spades that would pass 1NT instead of raising while white? Not to mention they seem to have only 3 or 4 points. I'm so confused right now.

Yes, indeed, I didn't post the whole hand yet because when I reconstructed it from my memory West didn't have a double (in my opinion). But remember this was an informal game among friends.

[gszeszycki]

P may have something similar to
T9
xx
QTxxx
QJTx maybe QT9x

p can tell you probably have 4 hearts so opps have no suits to run

While speculative it is not w/o merit to X 3n on this auction.
Of course the more featherweight your 1s opening might be
the more speculative the X becomes.

I agree with ducking spade and encouraging. If I get in first
I will lead a small spade. This gives declarer nothing they cannot
get for themselves and caters to P having T9.

[rhm]

do we get to see the actual layout?

Rainer Herrmann