[inquiry]

I am posting some easy defensive hands in the beginner intermediate forum. I thought i might give a harder one in this forum. This isn't world class hard, but I think it will cause problems for advanced players. During the speedball event, no one actually got this one right to hold declarer to 8 tricks in hearts (some declarers managed to hold themselves to only 8 tricks). Let's see what people in the forum and under no time pressure will come up with.

This was matchpoints, to explain the variety of bids (partner and north might have pushed. But 3♥ was the most common contract.

This one will be partially interactive. You lead the diamond Queen covered by the KING and south follows suit.

Partner thinks for a while and comes up with the diamond J at trick two, which south ruffs with the heart seven (perhaps helpful since we have the six?). Declarer leads the heart King, partner follow suits on the heart with the five rather or not you win the first heart.

If you win the first heart, what do you return. If you duck the first heart, WEst continues with the heart QUEEN. When partner shows out on hearts, he will discard a "useless" diamond.

---

[jonottawa]

The editorializing of the play is off-putting imo (at the very least, more suitable for a beginner/intermediate hand.) Maybe others enjoy it but it doesn't in any way simulate the situation at the table. If I know my (achievable) goal is to hold declarer to 8 tricks, I can draw inferences I otherwise couldn't. Just the facts, ma'am.

For instance, rather than telling me that the diamond is 'useless', you might tell me which diamond it was. My better partners are unusual in that when they discard 'useless' cards, they still try to communicate things (like whether they hold the ♠K or not.)

Anyway, I suppose I would win the 2nd Heart and violate confucius' rule and continue with the ♥ten.

Edit: (Confucius was right, a low spade now is better.) Good hand.

2nd edit for crankiness.

[wclass___]

If partner has ♠Qxx and nothing in ♣ then duck; win and exit small ♠.

If partner has ♣Jxx and xxx in ♠ then ♣ switch works.

[zasanya]

It seems the play of ♦ J suggests low ♠ return

[the_clown]

It looks like declarer has ?xxx KQJxxx x xx. If p has the King of ♠, we also have 5 tricks, so in order to have a problem we assume that declarer has Kxxx KQJxxx x xx. In this case is neccesay to win the queen of ♥ and shift to a ♣ to cut communication (and hope p has the J of ♣). If declarer plays a ♦ we ruff low, if he plays a ♠ we duck, so that p can win the second round of ♠ and play a ♣ through cutting declarer from dummy.

If p doesnt have the J of ♣ and has the King of ♠ we can ruff a ♦ high and simply play Ace and another ♠ for 1 down

[gszes]

inquiry, on 2011-August-25, 15:14, said:

I am posting some easy defensive hands in the beginner intermediate forum. I thought i might give a harder one in this forum. This isn't world class hard, but I think it will cause problems for advanced players. During the speedball event, no one actually got this one right to hold declarer to 8 tricks in hearts (some declarers managed to hold themselves to only 8 tricks). Let's see what people in the forum and under no time pressure will come up with.

This was matchpoints, to explain the variety of bids (partner and north might have pushed. But 3♥ was the most common contract.

This one will be partially interactive. You lead the diamond Queen covered by the KING and south follows suit.

Partner thinks for a while and comes up with the diamond J at trick two, which south ruffs with the heart seven (perhaps helpful since we have the six?). Declarer leads the heart King, partner follow suits on the heart with the five rather or not you win the first heart.

If you win the first heart, what do you return. If you duck the first heart, WEst continues with the heart QUEEN. When partner shows out on hearts, he will discard a "useless" diamond.

---

p play of the dia J smacks of desparation to me since they had to realize it was probably
an all or nothing proposition. Since we cannot beat this hand if p does not have either the
club J or the spade K all we have to do is try our chances in the proper order. We thus
come to the conclusion that we need to try clubs first since we will get to try spades later
if clubs are useless. We win the 2nd heart and switch to the club 6. If p cannot give us
a positive signal in clubs we are stuck hoping they have the spade K.

[FrancesHinden]

the_clown, on 2011-August-26, 07:39, said:

It looks like declarer has ?xxx KQJxxx x xx. If p has the King of ♠, we also have 5 tricks, so in order to have a problem we assume that declarer has Kxxx KQJxxx x xx. In this case is neccesay to win the queen of ♥ and shift to a ♣ to cut communication (and hope p has the J of ♣). If declarer plays a ♦ we ruff low, if he plays a ♠ we duck, so that p can win the second round of ♠ and play a ♣ through cutting declarer from dummy.

If p doesnt have the J of ♣ and has the King of ♠ we can ruff a ♦ high and simply play Ace and another ♠ for 1 down

Declarer has only 5 hearts

[FrancesHinden]

partner's "useless" diamond discard should have been suit preference, but we're obviously playing under some special rule where we aren't allowed to see what it was.

If declarer is 4=5=1=3 with the jack of clubs and the king of spades, and we win the heart and play a club, declarer wins in hand and draws trumps making 0+3+2+4. The same is true if he is 3=5=1=4. On these layouts we win the heart and play a spade, needing partner to have the queen and we eventually come to 2 spades, 2 hearts and a diamond.

[inquiry]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-August-27, 14:06, said:

partner's "useless" diamond discard should have been suit preference, but we're obviously playing under some special rule where we aren't allowed to see what it was.

If declarer is 4=5=1=3 with the jack of clubs and the king of spades, and we win the heart and play a club, declarer wins in hand and draws trumps making 0+3+2+4. The same is true if he is 3=5=1=4. On these layouts we win the heart and play a spade, needing partner to have the queen and we eventually come to 2 spades, 2 hearts and a diamond.

Actual hand.

I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag by saying partner will discard the ♦7 to indicate something in spades (so I used the word useless in quotes) because I gave the choice to win the first heart. if you win the first heart, you don't get to know that partner has something in spades. I guess I should have just stopped teh hand at they lead the heart King and had people explain their defense from then, but then we would have to go through what declarer does if you duck in later post (is spoilers best way to handle that?).

As for the comment about partner being desperate for the play of the ♦J: certainly complicated the defense perhaps, a spade back by partner would have made the defense very easy. But if partner decided to cut down on spade ruffs with a heart return, the hand makes. The ♦J back (playing you for singleton Queen and in need of a trump promotion), makes the hand challenging.

The small spade back is the right answer, but everyone needs to appreciate the need to duck the first heart and win the second for the spade return to work. I thought it an interesting problem.

---

[rhm]

Partner bid 3♦ over 2♥ so can not have 4 cards in ♠. Likewise declarer wold not have overcalled 1♥ with 5-5 in the majors.
So partner should be 3♠=1 ♥=6♦=3♣ giving declarer 4♠=5♥=1♦=3♣

Accordingly the following defense will work assuming partner has a ♠ honor:

Duck the ♥K
Win the next ♥.
Switch to a low ♠ to partner's ♠Q (I guess) and declarer's ♠K.
What can declarer do?
If declarer plays the ♥J we will ruff in time to cash 2 ♠ tricks.
Alternatively declarer may return a ♠ with the intention of trying to ruff a ♠ in dummy.
Foil his plan by locking him into dummy with a low ♥.

Very pretty.

Rainer Herrmann

[vianu2]

inquiry, on 2011-August-27, 15:02, said:

I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag by saying partner will discard the ♦7 to indicate something in spades (so I used the word useless in quotes) because I gave the choice to win the first heart. if you win the first heart, you don't get to know that partner has something in spades. I guess I should have just stopped teh hand at they lead the heart King and had people explain their defense from then, but then we would have to go through what declarer does if you duck in later post (is spoilers best way to handle that?).

As for the comment about partner being desperate for the play of the ♦J: certainly complicated the defense perhaps, a spade back by partner would have made the defense very easy. But if partner decided to cut down on spade ruffs with a heart return, the hand makes. The ♦J back (playing you for singleton Queen and in need of a trump promotion), makes the hand challenging.

The small spade back is the right answer, but everyone needs to appreciate the need to duck the first heart and win the second for the spade return to work. I thought it an interesting problem.
[/hv]

I'm sorry i didn't pay too much attention i was going to post my opinion about defense, but you just posted the hands. I was going to tell you that a low spade would give the contract here , and that i would not return club or spade, based only on the jack dia "signal" which was wrong played but still didn't give the contract.
I see u tell us that u set the contract with low spade return i don't understand how...
If u back spade, declarer will finesse club to ten and play a diamond pitching spade , i don't think u can ever make 2 spade trics! You have 2 hearts , 1 spade, 1 diamond...hmmm and the last trump yes.

[inquiry]

vianu2, on 2011-August-27, 15:49, said:

I see u tell us that u set the contract with low spade return i don't understand how...
If u back spade, declarer will finesse club to ten and play a diamond pitching spade , i don't think u can ever make 2 spade trics! You have 2 hearts , 1 spade, 1 diamond...hmmm and the last trump yes.

I suppose you see the problem with win ♠K, hook club, and pitch spade on the diamond. North ruffs low, and plays two high spades. dummy ruffs and you get a trump promotion. This just exchanges a second spade trick for a third heart trick.