[JLOGIC]

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You are south, 1C on your left, 1H from partner, 1S on your right, 2H from you, p p 2S AP.

You lead the 8 of hearts, partner wins the ace and shifts to the deuce of diamonds, RHO playing small. What's the plan? Imps if it matters.

[cnszsun]

I guess partner's hand could be 4-5-1-3 or 4-5-3-1. With the latter, It seems hard to defeat it. So, I will focus on the former.
I want to get tricks from 2 trumps, 1 heart, and 3 minors. The correct defense depends on your guess on partner's trump holding.
Anyway, I will win ♦A, and play ♣Q, because I don't want partner to be endplayed if I return ♦ to give him a ruff.

[MrAce]

 cnszsun, on 2013-April-17, 19:50, said:

I guess partner's hand could be 4-5-1-3 or 4-5-3-1. With the latter, It seems hard to defeat it. So, I will focus on the former.
I want to get tricks from 2 trumps, 1 heart, and 3 minors. The correct defense depends on your guess on partner's trump holding.
Anyway, I will win ♦A, and play ♣Q, because I don't want partner to be endplayed if I return ♦ to give him a ruff.

This is almost same as what i thought, however i probably would play small ♣

-Declarer may have Jx ♣ and perhaps misguesses
-If he doesn't have J of ♣ he is likely to fly K, which gives us extra chance to defeat even if pd's trump holding is not good enuf to score 2 tricks w/o a ruff.

I think pd is good enough to play J from Ajx, if declarer plays low.

[Codo]

A diamond ruff would endplay partner, so I play on clubs too. I lead a small one, for the reasons Timo gave.

[lamford]

 Codo, on 2013-April-18, 01:49, said:

A diamond ruff would endplay partner, so I play on clubs too. I lead a small one, for the reasons Timo gave.

If partner has something like AQxx AJ9xx x Axx, then you need to give him his diamond ruff. The same for AKx AJ9xx x A10xx. If partner was going to be endplayed if you gave him a diamond ruff, he should not have led one.

[ArtK78]

Maybe I am missing something, but where is the rush? I am just going to play the ♦8 and let declarer fend for himself.

I may lose a diamond ruff, but I may gain a club trick or a diamond trick in return.

[lamford]

 ArtK78, on 2013-April-18, 08:39, said:

Maybe I am missing something, but where is the rush? I am just going to play the ♦8 and let declarer fend for himself.

I may lose a diamond ruff, but I may gain a club trick or a diamond trick in return.

Partner has a singleton diamond, surely. If you duck and declarer has something like ♠KJxxxx ♥x ♦QJxx ♣J10, he will get home. Even if declarer has ♣Jx he will make.

[gnasher]

 lamford, on 2013-April-18, 08:33, said:

If partner has something like AQxx AJ9xx x Axx, then you need to give him his diamond ruff. The same for AKx AJ9xx x A10xx. If partner was going to be endplayed if you gave him a diamond ruff, he should not have led one.

What should he have done with KJxx AJ9xx x AJx? A spade switch would have worked from this holding, but he doesn't know how good our diamonds are.

[ArtK78]

 lamford, on 2013-April-18, 08:51, said:

Partner has a singleton diamond, surely. If you duck and declarer has something like ♠KJxxxx ♥x ♦QJxx ♣J10, he will get home. Even if declarer has ♣Jx he will make.

Perhaps. It may depend on the size of declarer's and partner's small trumps. The ruff may kill a natural trump trick.

It may be true that partner did not have many options on what to play when he won trick 1. You have to decide immediately whether an active or passive defense is best.

Of course, on other constructions it may be that partner did have choices at trick 2, but deliberately chose to play a diamond. The question is why?

[lamford]

 gnasher, on 2013-April-18, 09:13, said:

What should he have done with KJxx AJ9xx x AJx? A spade switch would have worked from this holding, but he doesn't know how good our diamonds are.

No, a spade switch would not have worked. Dummy wins, ruffs a heart, and declarer plays a diamond himself. I don't know how you can tell which to play partner for:
a) KJxx AJ9xx x AJx when he needs to play a diamond, and you need to win and play a club
b) AQxx AJ9xx x ATx when you need to give a diamond ruff
c) AKx AJ9xx x Axxx when you need to give partner a diamond ruff
d) AJxx AJ9xx x AJx when you need to win and play a club
e) KQxx AJ9xx x ATx
f) AJxx AJ9xx x ATx
in the last two cases the ship has sailed and you needed the remarkable opening lead of the Q♣ to beat it.

Bridge is too tough for me. I now have no idea what is the right defence!

[billw55]

 lamford, on 2013-April-18, 09:32, said:

Bridge is too tough for me. I now have no idea what is the right defence!

Me neither, so I go with partner. If he leads a singleton, he wants a ruff.

[FrancesHinden]

 lamford, on 2013-April-18, 08:33, said:

The same for AKx AJ9xx x A10xx.

If that is partner's hand I am more concerned about why he passed 2H.

[JLOGIC]

I played the CQ, I thought it was better than low since if RHO has Jx he cannot get to dummy and will probably try to cross to the DK and partner will have a club as an exit card still (as opposed to say, club low ten jack, club back, club ruff or w/e). I just thought declarer would never play me for 2 aces.

Anyways, I thought a club was right, I actually took time to think (joe and I have been routinely finishing 14 boards in an hour lol). On the actual hand a diamond was necessary, partner had AKJx of spades so he needed a ruff (declarer having AJ of clubs). However, declarer forgot to pin my 9 of spades so we beat it anyways.

The daily bulletin obv made fun of me for shifting to the club Q so I wanted the validation from the forum I guess lol.

[PhilKing]

Why didn't pard cash the spade king before shifting to a diamond?

[MrAce]

 lamford, on 2013-April-18, 09:32, said:

b) AQxx AJ9xx x ATx when you need to give a diamond ruff
c) AKx AJ9xx x Axxx when you need to give partner a diamond ruff
Bridge is too tough for me. I now have no idea what is the right defence!

 PhilKing, on 2013-April-19, 04:08, said:

Why didn't pard cash the spade king before shifting to a diamond?

Kewl

 JLOGIC, on 2013-April-18, 23:30, said:

(joe and I have been routinely finishing 14 boards in an hour lol).

Joke of course, but i think Justin explained this in some other topic in the past that when you play very fast as a style, you may miss some very good moves now and then.(or said something similar to) Imo this type of players believe in the pluses of fast play/defense will outscore the minuses in the long run. As far as i watched these 2 on vu i can't blame them, if i could play or see most of the things as fast as they do, i would definetely accept to miss some good moves now and then, which i am missing much more often than they do even with a slow play anyway

[cnszsun]

There was a hand on today's first session of semi-final, 6♣ played by joe. As declarer, you had to decide how to play trump suit for no loser with AKxxx vs J10xx, your lho preempted weak 2. My instinct was to play AK because you need to ruff 2 losers with dummy's trump, so even rho had Qxx, you may still down. I'm not sure if I have missed something.

[ArtK78]

 PhilKing, on 2013-April-19, 04:08, said:

Why didn't pard cash the spade king before shifting to a diamond?

My thought also. If a ruff is needed, playing a high trump (when possible) is usually the way to get the message across.

[jogs]

 PhilKing, on 2013-April-19, 04:08, said:

Why didn't pard cash the spade king before shifting to a diamond?

Never thought of that play. Like chess thinking moves ahead.
Now South would know North doesn't have the ♣A.