[manudude03]

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You decide to lead the ♠4 which goes to the 3-K-A. The ♦3 is now led from declarer and you win the jack (partner playing the 8- you play smith peters, so a low card says they like the suit led). What do you do now?

edit: corrected

[ahydra]

South doesn't have the ♠2, and North doesn't have the ♦2 as South has it.

I'm really struggling to see a way to beat this. Declarer does look a little short of tricks - why is he playing diamonds rather than trying to set up hearts, for instance.

The more I think about this, the more I'm placing declarer with 4153 and wanting to lead a small heart back, but I haven't yet managed to convince myself why that's right. Overall though I think the key here is to go passive and hope for something like ♠AJxx ♥x ♦AQ9xx ♣Jxx where declarer runs out of steam.

ahydra

[manudude03]

ahydra, on 2017-February-06, 09:47, said:

South doesn't have the ♠2, and North doesn't have the ♦2 as South has it.

Thanks for that, corrected the OP, ♠3 was played from dummy, and it was the ♦3 led at T2.

[nullve]

ahydra, on 2017-February-06, 09:47, said:

♠AJxx ♥x ♦AQ9xx ♣Jxx

I came up with

♠AJxx ♥x ♦AQrxx ♣Jxx,

r<8. But partner might have played the 9 from 98xx.

This post has been edited by nullve: 2017-February-06, 10:51

[MrAce]

Which system are they playing?

At first glance I can come up with hands that we can set it if declarer has something like. I'd play partner for ♣K+♥J and 9xxx♦. Something like

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He won't have the tempo to establish both 3rd♦ and another spade as long as we do not create him extra ♠ tricks before his entry to hand is killed. So I would play back ♦.

[MrAce]

nullve, on 2017-February-06, 10:40, said:

I came up with

♠AJxx ♥x ♦AQrxx ♣Jxx,

r<8.

1- You do not need the "r" to be smaller than 8
2-If declarer has this hand ♦ back still beats it and beats it by 2 tricks.
3-If declarer has the hand I constructed, playing ♥ back allows him to make. He wins the ♥ A and establish spades So you voted for playing ♥ but it is clearly inferior.

[manudude03]

MrAce, on 2017-February-06, 10:42, said:

Which system are they playing?

Standard American. Not sure why they bid 3C, but they did.

[ahydra]

I would hope partner would play 9 from 98xx if he wanted to signal high, hence I thought that declarer would have the 9. (MrAce: Note from the OP that the 8 was played on the first round as a Smith signal.)

ahydra

[MrAce]

ahydra, on 2017-February-06, 11:40, said:

I would hope partner would play 9 from 98xx if he wanted to signal high, hence I thought that declarer would have the 9. (MrAce: Note from the OP that the 8 was played on the first round as a Smith signal.)

ahydra

At the time I replied I was assuming they play 2/1.
To be honest I do not know whether pd would play the 9 of♦ or not from 98xx. I would play the 9 myself.

But if we assume what you say is correct for this partner, and declarer has AQ9xx ♦, then we need pd to hold ♥J+♣KJ.
Which leaves declarer with 11 hcp and I thought this is not likely playing 2/1. Manu said they play St.American so it is possible that declarer can hold AJxx xx AQ9xx xx. In which case we would be better placed had we taken first ♦ with K.
Now we can defeat by playing ♣. We can also defeat by playing club, dd defense if declarer has the hand I constructed with spade AJT9, if pd wins the club and plays back ♦ which is as I said way too double dummy for pd to solve when to play ♦ back and when to play ♣ back or spade back.