[AL78]

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I was East. We were playing HELD discards. When I decided to play a diamond after getting in with the club I didn't know what was the best card to play but ended up leading the jack which is probably not right but I couldn't work out all the key layouts in my head to decide the optimal card to play. In the end it was irrelevant as declarer wrapped up eight tricks for a joint bottom to us. First question, should I play 4th best diamond instead of the jack, and secondly, could I have done better somewhere? If we hold it to seven tricks we at least manage an average.

[Cyberyeti]

Partner should not be cashing the heart which is what costs, just play a spade.

[apollo1201]

Cashing the HQ then leading D clearly places H 10x with declarer. Partner should read this and should also realize that cashing the HJ will release a trick to declarer, which is probably not a good move.

She should therefore do sth else, like clearing your D while you still have a S entry (declarer has shown CAQ, HA and presumably the DA or the plays in D would have been different so has no other high card given the bidding).

So the mis defence is not yours.

As regards which D to return, I do not think we are in a situation where a technical card matters with 8x in dummy, probably entries to each defender’s hand at that stage of the play, and unclear situation about suit lengths around the table. So I’d just return what my agreement with partner is, be it 4th best, odd even, small promising, etc.

[AL78]

apollo1201, on 2022-August-27, 02:15, said:

Cashing the HQ then leading D clearly places H 10x with declarer. Partner should read this and should also realize that cashing the HJ will release a trick to declarer, which is probably not a good move.

I'm not sure if she noticed, but I won the first trick with the HK then cashed the HQ when I got in. I hoped this would show the doubleton honor and give partner the heart layout. I'm guessing, but she may have thought she should cash the jack because it was not clear if she was going to get in again to cash it later.

[Cyberyeti]

AL78, on 2022-August-27, 05:18, said:

I'm not sure if she noticed, but I won the first trick with the HK then cashed the HQ when I got in. I hoped this would show the doubleton honor and give partner the heart layout. I'm guessing, but she may have thought she should cash the jack because it was not clear if she was going to get in again to cash it later.

She knows declarer is 1435 given your switch I think you're playing another heart if you have one much of the time, she can safely lead a spade, Just a question which one.

[mikeh]

AL78, on 2022-August-27, 05:18, said:

I'm not sure if she noticed, but I won the first trick with the HK then cashed the HQ when I got in. I hoped this would show the doubleton honor and give partner the heart layout. I'm guessing, but she may have thought she should cash the jack because it was not clear if she was going to get in again to cash it later.

Certainly the King then the Queen could show a doubleton but….

This sequence is very misleading…..if my partner played the King, as west I’d ‘know’ declarer held the AQ, so my defence would be based on that knowledge. Note that such knowledge includes assuming that partner has more values in the other suits.

All good defence requires that each partner draw inferences with every card played…the idea is to develop an idea of what the two concealed hands look like. Each trick provides more information. The bidding told us (assuming a 15-17 1N opening range) that opener has 12-14 hcp and at most 3 spades….I’d ask at the table whether their style allows for the 1N rebid on a stiff.

The heart king would mislead west. However, that turned out not to matter because you got in before west made any fatal pitches. However, on a different layout west might win a club trick and now would be misled by thinking not just that declarer held the heart Queen but also that you held those values somewhere else.

Note, as others have said, that your heart sequence was irrelevant. The key is that you switched after cashing the heart Queen. That denied a third heart. So west knew that declarer held A10xx in hearts, AQxxx in clubs and the A10x in diamonds (with K10x he’d play the king on the Jack and if you held KJ10x(x) you’d continue with the 10 rather than the low one.

Therefore west had all the information needed to avoid handing declarer the 8th trick.

When I play with a less advanced player, I try to avoid lessons during the play…if the player is interested I’m happy to go over the results later. But one thing I do like to say when discussing bridge with less advanced players is that the best advice I ever read was in Hamman’s book (written by Manley), in which Hamman says that one should never ask ‘what should I do now.’. Instead one asks ‘what’s going on?’

Once you know what’s going on, the answer to what should I do is often clear and always clearer. How does one know what’s going on? By counting, counting, counting and then counting a bit more.

The auction helps you count hcp, especially in narrowly defined sequences such as here. Partner’s cards tell you more. Declarer’s play tells you more, etc.

By the time of west’s fatal heart Jack he or she possessed ALL the needed facts…declarer almost certainly held precisely the hand he had, the only unknown card being the size of the spade spot. With that exception, a strong player as west could have written out declarer’s exact hand.

[michel444]

evrything is looking wrong
the biding :
5 cards ♣ and splinter ♠ 1NT ?
with a 1=4=4=4 maybe
what was the lead ?
declare has an easy 1NT 4 ♣ 1♥ 1♠ 1♦
so the bad defense can create an over trick
but i see no way to defeat the contract on a red lead