[humilities]

The opponents bid to 3NT via:

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Partner (shockingly!) leads your suit with the 3 of ♥ - you win the Ace and declarer follows with the 4. We do not lead low against NT without an honor so we can mark partner with the K or J or both.

Like a good little student, I you return your original 4th best - the 5 (just as every bridge book you have ever read has told you to do.) Declarer plays the 9 and partner wins the Jack. Partner proceeds to go into the tank. Clearly he has KJ83 and thinks you started with A52. He is hesitant to cash the K and lose tempo while setting up a trick for declarer. Eventually he decides to switch.

Is there any solution to this? Would leading the 2 be the correct play? Are we now fooling partner that Hearts are 4-4? Might he now inadvertantly block the suit if he thinks he wants to be on lead at trick 5?

*****

One other note .. upon retrospect I think the Q at trick one is the correct play (catering to partner leading from Jxx). But this doesn't change the trick 2 issue at all .. when I lead back the 5 (declarer playing the 9) and partner winning the J, won't he now be playing declarer for A109x and abandon the suit? The 5 leads to the same ambiguity.

Is the expert rule still "original 4th best" or is there any better way to deal with this? All of my bridge books are 20+ years old lol please tell me someone has come up with something better!

[wank]

just lie and lead back the lowest. partner will place you with 4 and know it's safe to continue.

[Antrax]

One thing is a bit unclear to me: your partner is looking at three hearts. He sees two in dummy. You said he placed you with three cards. That leaves five for declarer. So why did declarer open 1♦?

[Zelandakh]

Given we know partner has an honour, is there any reason not to play the ♥Q at trick 1? Declarer has to win this and we can then give a signal encouraging hearts before partner gets back on lead. If partner happens to have the king we did not lose anything and can still run the suit.

[Vampyr]

Antrax, on 2012-January-19, 07:46, said:

One thing is a bit unclear to me: your partner is looking at three hearts. He sees two in dummy. You said he placed you with three cards. That leaves five for declarer. So why did declarer open 1♦?

Partner has 4 hearts.

[ggwhiz]

Just my opinion but when I started playing and read that bit, I hated it. After a few such disasters I discussed with any new partner that we played 4th best opening leads, attitude leads thereafter and when giving count it was remainder count

Since attitude leads and remainder count were written up later (?) I think original 4th best is in the dustbin or well on its way.

ps. My regular pard is a frequent flyer at the library and devours everything bridge. I'm often asked "Do we play this?" and often say "No, that was in the 50's".

[Phil]

Playing the Q is not safe at all. If you are catering to declarer holding Kx, then partner will have a tough time continuing from an original holding of Jxxx thinking declarer has AKT.

Returning the Q isnt safe either. Again, if partner led from Jxxx, its hard to continue since partner will put declarer on KTxx.

Winning the Ace is fine, and unless partner led from something like K9x, partner should be able to continue the suit if you return the 2. If partner takes a trip to geniusville and decides to block the suit so he is on lead later (why, looking at this dummy?), then we will have a friendly chat about safety plays in carding.

[Antrax]

Phil, isn't it standard practice to play Q from AQx(xx) to put declarer to a guess when he has Kxx or at least prevent him from holding up?

[Phil]

Antrax, if I have AQx and partner has most of the strength and entries, then its best if I play A, Q and clear the suit. However if I have most of the strength and partner is broke, then the Q is best.