[Fluffy]

http://www.bridgebas...6345-1363090584

I don't know how to make the diagram anymore, has something changed on the viewer in myhands?

Whatever this is a ver normal 3NT where you have Axx vs xx and Axx vs xx in the reds, if you win the lead, when they get in they can only cash 4 tricks since the suit breaks 4-4, but if you duck, the can switch to the other red suit and put you down.

But as always the guy who won the first trick continued with the same suit and the contract finished making.

My quetions is: how many times have you seen at the table someone ducking an ace in 3NT and the opps succesfuly switcing to another suit to put it down? I don't remember any.

[Phil]

Fluffy, on 2013-March-22, 08:48, said:

http://www.bridgebas...6345-1363090584

I don't know how to make the diagram anymore, has something changed on the viewer in myhands?

Whatever this is a ver normal 3NT where you have Axx vs xx and Axx vs xx in the reds, if you win the lead, when they get in they can only cash 4 tricks since the suit breaks 4-4, but if you duck, the can switch to the other red suit and put you down.

But as always the guy who won the first trick continued with the same suit and the contract finished making.

My quetions is: how many times have you seen at the table someone ducking an ace in 3NT and the opps succesfuly switcing to another suit to put it down? I don't remember any.

How about 4♠? From yesterday's Vanderbilt:

---

Spots VERY approximate.

A heart was led and declarer ducked...

The defense did not find the club shift

[winkle]

None off hand, but it's not something I'd keep track off. I bet an example can be found in the vugraph archive, as opposed to hands I personally played. Rodwell has a name for this play in his book, the "bait-and-switch."

[Fluffy]

4♠ is perhaps easir since you can see or count a doubleton and realice there is no future continuing, but when you duck an ace on 3NT nobody switches!

[Alik1974]

Switching to ♦ should be automatic. If there are 4♥ to be taken along with the ♣K, they will not disappear. However if the defence's tricks are in ♦ (ie. partner has a ♦ honor), a ♦ must be led at once.

[gszes]

maybe its a human nature kind of thing---the continued heart play
looks safe and any switch you make (if wrong) will mean a "SP"
while the best you can hope for with a switch is you were lucky.

[Free]

It happened once against me and learned from that experience. I also remember a hand during my first season in competition, where I was declarer and took trick 1 (I had Axx vs xx in both Majors) and made the contract. At the other table declarer ducked and went down after the killer switch. My team mates and even the kibitzers (I was playing in the open room) were impressed. I know there have been other cases, but none were as memorable as these two.

With the current hand it's clear that you won't defeat the contract with ♥ tricks, so the ♦ switch is quite obvious imo.

[cherdano]

Isn't that why we play 4th-best leads? It would be trickier if one of declarer's spots is lower than the 4, and he thinks of hiding it.

[gnasher]

Declarer's duck of the first two hearts seems rather silly. When the suit is 5=3 the defence almost certainly will cash two hearts and then switch to diamonds.

[billw55]

If I was only trying to win virtual IMPs from BBO randoms, I might try holding up, fully aware. It could be the better percentage play! Not a good habit to get in though.