[MrAce]

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MP, expert pd.

Lead ♣9 (std leads) and declarer plays low from dummy, how would you plan the defense?

[nullve]

This may be my last chance to give partner a club ruff, but I think a better plan is to induce declarer, who expects the trump king to be offside anyway, to play trumps from the top. (We would then also get our trick back if the ♣9 is a singleton.) Then a spade return might be sufficient, but it could also look like an attempt to establish a spade trick. A diamond return, on the other hand, will certainly look like a singleton. It's also very unlikely to cost a trick even if partner has the ♠KQ. (Declarer would need to have something really ugly like ♠xxx ♥AQTxx ♦Kx ♣Kxx.)

And happy birthday!

[Tramticket]

nullve, on 2018-February-01, 03:46, said:

This may be my last chance to give partner a club ruff, but I think a better plan is to induce declarer, who expects the trump king to be offside anyway, to play trumps from the top. (We would then also get our trick back if the ♣9 is a singleton.) Then a spade return might be sufficient, but it could also look like an attempt to establish a spade trick. A diamond return, on the other hand, will certainly look like a singleton. It's also very unlikely to cost a trick even if partner has the ♠KQ. (Declarer would need to have something really ugly like ♠xxx ♥AQTxx ♦Kx ♣Kxx.)

And happy birthday!

If we want declarer to play trumps from the top, then why not duck the first trick? Declarer will place us with the AQJ♣, based on the opening lead and will not expect us to hold K♥ as well. He might prefer to play trumps from hand, rather than trying to cross to dummy and risk a ruff.

[gszes]

Win the club A and return the club Q. The chances of setting 4H has to border on close to non existence. Once that is recognized, we need to take our best shot at holding declarer to as few tricks as possible. If partner has a singleton club it is vital we get the club ruff in at trick 2 or there is a HUGE chance it will be lost and with it a TON of MP. Even if partner does not ruff trick 2 there is still a great chance declarer will play partner for the trump K and limit themselves to making 5. The 3c bid might convince declarer to tackle trumps by leading low toward the J at trick 3. They will then be in sticker shock when we win the trump K and continue another club that allows partner to ruff with Tx. Sometimes the boring play is the right play:)

[MrAce]

nullve, on 2018-February-01, 03:46, said:

And happy birthday!

Thanks

[JanisW]

♣A followed by ♠switch

I think declarer is likely to be 2-6-2-3 so our possilbe ♠-trick is quite likely to run away if we don't establish it immediately.
Holding 4♥ to exactly making, might yield a good result, because if P can't ruff our ♣-return declarer might easily make an overtrick by throwing a ♠-looser on ♦s once our ♥K is driven out.

regards
JW

[Winstonm]

I don't see this going down so the question is over tricks IMO. I think win the club Ace and switch to the diamond 3, might induce declarer to eschew the heart finesse.

[rmnka447]

I'm also winning the ♣ A at trick 1.

Let's do a little analysis. Missing honors when you see dummy ♠ KQ ♥ AQ ♦ K ♣ K. From the opening lead, Declarer should have ♣ K. The opening lead seems to be a singleton or doubleton. Looking at dummy, you can see that if any cards need to sit right for Declarer to make they do. So 4 ♥ is a big favorite to make. So the big concern is to get all the tricks normally due to your side than risking a remote chance to beat the contract.

Consider Declarer's overcall and the missing honors. It looks like Declarer has to have at least 3 of the 5 remaining missing honors for any decent 3 level overcall. It would seem like one of them is surely ♥ A. Furthermore, dummy's ♦ AQJ might be a source for pitching Declarer's losing ♣ if you duck the ♣ A and Declarer wins ♣ K and holds ♦ Kx. So take the ♣ A

After taking the ♣ A, the question is "What to return?". Any ♠ or ♦ looks to help Declarer set up tricks in those suits. A trump might be right if we knew partner doesn't have a singleton and it could also give away a potential trump trick. ♣ Q might be interpreted as wanting a ♠ return which could be disastrous if partner has a singleton and holds something like ♠ K10x.

I'm going to return the ♣ 10 which Declarer might interpret as a request for a ♦ return if partner does have a stiff ♣. If Declarer holds ♦ K it may not make any difference, but if not maybe it will cause Declarer to misplay the hand.