You lead the ♦K which holds. What do you play at trick two?
		
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Defense problem
				
						#1
						
								 
							  
								
						
					
				
				Posted 2023-April-30, 14:50
						Swiss pairs playing Acol weak NT, 3 weak twos:
You lead the ♦K which holds. What do you play at trick two?
						
					
					
				You lead the ♦K which holds. What do you play at trick two?
				
						#3
						
								 
							  
								
						
					
				
				Posted 2023-May-01, 01:06
						I'm going to guess a spade switch is best, but I would also like to have all legally available information before committing.
						
						
						
					
					
				
				
						#4
						
								 
							  
								
						
					
				
				Posted 2023-May-01, 01:19
						I'm sorry, I completely neglected to put the dummy down. Lets try that again:
♦K, 3, T, 2
Your move?
						
					
					
				♦K, 3, T, 2
Your move?
				
						#5
						
								 
							  
								
						
					
				
				Posted 2023-May-01, 02:32
						Is the ten encouraging? I see two main ways to continue:
						
					
					
				- Play a low spade, intending to cut declarer's possible diamond ruffs. In a perfect world declarer has 5♠4♦, partner wins the ace of spades and plays another, wins the diamond return and plays a club. If we give declarer any ace though they can manage a diamond ruff, but we can prevent them from taking two. This should force them to guess the hearts, at least.
- We can play partner for heart shortness (hopefully a void, but maybe a singleton) and play ♥9 hoping to play on crossruff lines. If partner's ♦T is discouraging we might have to play for this distribution, although it is a bit strange for declarer to bid 2♠ rather than double with both majors. So we'd likely have to find partner with a singleton in hearts and the ace of spades, or the singleton ace of hearts.
				
						#6
						
								 
							  
								
						
					
				
				Posted 2023-May-01, 02:52
 DavidKok, on 2023-May-01, 02:32, said:
DavidKok, on 2023-May-01, 02:32, said:
Is the ten encouraging? I see two main ways to continue:
- Play a low spade, intending to cut declarer's possible diamond ruffs. In a perfect world declarer has 5♠4♦, partner wins the ace of spades and plays another, wins the diamond return and plays a club. If we give declarer any ace though they can manage a diamond ruff, but we can prevent them from taking two. This should force them to guess the hearts, at least.
- We can play partner for heart shortness (hopefully a void, but maybe a singleton) and play ♥9 hoping to play on crossruff lines. If partner's ♦T is discouraging we might have to play for this distribution, although it is a bit strange for declarer to bid 2♠ rather than double with both majors. So we'd likely have to find partner with a singleton in hearts and the ace of spades, or the singleton ace of hearts.
The ten is encouraging (we play HELD).
	
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