[lamford]

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I guess you would not want to defend this against Zia, West, but you have to. Barnet Shenkin led the ace of hearts and his partner played the two, reverse attitude. Time stood still while Barnet considered his next move. Mind you, time always stands still when Barnet considers anything. What is your play? 1D was 3+ and 2NT 12-14.

Champions Cup, Round 8, table 1, so of a respectable standard!

[lamford]

Obviously too hard as no replies.

[DavidKok]

I'll bite. Partner encouraged, so I'm continuing with a small heart. There are layouts where we need to switch to spades immediately but I think partner wouldn't encourage on those. If partner started with something like ♥J982 we need to preserve the ace of hearts.
I think this is a beginner level play, so all the ominous hints suggest that I must be wrong.

[nullve]

Partner didn't make a lead-directing overcall, so presumably doesn't have KJTxx or better spades.

Zia would probably not bid 2N then 3N over 3♣ without anything resembling a heart stopper, so probably has ♥Jxxx at the very least.

His most likely shape appears to be 4432, but it doesn't matter if he's 3442 instead.

At first I was considering a shift to a low club, hoping for a layout like

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, but that would smell too much of an underlead from the ace for Zia to go wrong.

There might be a tiny chance that partner chose to encourage hearts (= discourage spades) on a layout like

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and that I need to switch a spade. But I think the most legitimate chance is that partner has ♥T87x (or better) and an ace, as in

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or

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, in which case I should continue with a boring small heart at trick two.

[mikeh]

I didn’t answer earlier because it’s close to a guess

However, I do think that the percentage play is a low heart.

This scores an immediate win if partner has J98x.

It eventually wins if partner has 10xxx where his x’s are good, and he has an ace unless declarer has 9 winners by way of a spade hook.

More to the point, I don’t see any upside to any other defence. Cashing a top heart is never right unless Zia bid 3N with Jx in hearts, which even Zia on an imaginative day seems unlikely to do, since he’ll have an easy 3S bid available. If partner has Jxxxx, which I don’t believe for a minute, we’re ok anyway.

Spades make no sense. If partner lacks the heart Jack but has the spades Ace, he should discourage in hearts, since spades is the only plausible switch and he wants to lead a heart through declarer…partner has no knowledge that we have no heart spot that would benefit from such a lead.

Clubs make no sense since no defender would lead from the Queen in this situation so even if partner holds Qx and a useful heart holding, no expert declarer will miscues clubs very often…and if partner holds the club Queen, declarer has the spade AKx(x) so has 10 tricks on a club switch when he pops the King.

[mikeh]

nullve, on 2022-February-12, 06:47, said:

Partner didn't make a lead-directing overcall, so presumably doesn't have KJTxx or better spades.

Zia would probably not bid 2N then 3N over 3♣ without anything resembling a heart stopper, so probably has ♥Jxxx at the very least.

His most likely shape appears to be 4432, but it doesn't matter if he's 3442 instead.

At first I was considering a shift to a low club, hoping for a layout like

---

, but that would smell too much of an underlead from the ace for Zia to go wrong.

There might be a tiny chance that partner chose to encourage hearts (= discourage spades) on a layout like

---

and that I need to switch a spade. But I think the most legitimate chance is that partner has ♥T87x (or better) and an ace, as in

---

or

---

, in which case I should continue with a boring small heart at trick two.

I would love to play for serious money if in your partnership you’re expected to bid 2S over 2D with KJ10xx(x) in spades and no other high card…..vulnerable!

My appetite for that is further increased by the notion that, with that hand and Qx in dummy, you think it’s right to encourage hearts.

[nullve]

mikeh, on 2022-February-12, 12:32, said:

My appetite for that is further increased by the notion that, with that hand and Qx in dummy, you think it’s right to encourage hearts.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I do.

[nullve]

mikeh, on 2022-February-12, 12:29, said:

If partner lacks the heart Jack but has the spades Ace, he should discourage in hearts, since spades is the only plausible switch and he wants to lead a heart through declarer…partner has no knowledge that we have no heart spot that would benefit from such a lead.

So how should the defence go on the layout where South has A8732 T872 96 64?

[mikeh]

nullve, on 2022-February-12, 15:56, said:

So how should the defence go on the layout where South has A8732 T872 96 64?

I think south has a tough guess. If North has AK9x, he wants to discourage in order to get a spade switch. Note that south can’t tell whether North has a side ace…the bidding is consistent with North holding the club Queen instead of the ace.

If North has AK54, he wants to encourage and hope partner has a minor suit ace and works out to switch to a low heart. If North has am improbable AKJx then either works.

Sometimes the game can’t be ‘solved’ with assurance. It’s a game of incomplete information (with rare exceptions) and hence occasionally there will be pure guesses.