Rare play

[Dave Flower]

This hand came up last Tuesday at Towcester:

Matchpoints, both vul, dealer N:

N E S W
1D 1S 2C pass
3C pass 3NT all pass

2
J 9 4
A Q 6 4 3
A K J 8

A 8 7
K Q 3
K J 2
7 5 3 2

S4 S2 SQ S7
H2 HK H5 H4

Take it from there...

David Flower

[Player]

Post by Dave Flower
N E S W
1D 1S 2C pass
3C pass 3NT all pass
2
J 9 4
A Q 6 4 3
A K J 8
A 8 7
K Q 3
K J 2
7 5 3 2
S4 S2 SQ S7
H2 HK H5 H4
Take it from there...
David Flower

Well the defenders cannot defend. I am s tempo ahead.I cash AK of C. If the Q does not drop, I revert to H.

[Lorne Anderson]

Post by Dave Flower
N E S W
1D 1S 2C pass
3C pass 3NT all pass
2
J 9 4
A Q 6 4 3
A K J 8
A 8 7
K Q 3
K J 2
7 5 3 2
S4 S2 SQ S7
H2 HK H5 H4
Take it from there...
David Flower

Strange defense given it looks like RHO has 4 spades and a spade
continuation will beat 3N.

I play club to K, diamond to K and lead a club. If LHO follows I play
the J which guarantees 10 tricks with chances for 11. If LHO discards I
rise and play a heart which also gets 10 tricks.

[Robert Chance]

Post by Lorne Anderson
Strange defense given it looks like RHO has 4 spades and a spade
continuation will beat 3N.

It isn't that strange a defence, particularly at matchpoints - if RHO has (say) KQTxxx Axx xx xx then a heart switch could easily be the winning defence (RHO does not know you do not have the jack of spades).

There is possibly an implication that RHO does not have a guarded queen of clubs. Nonetheless, I don't see any reason to play the hand differently from you.

[Player]

Really Robert? This one almost snuck through to the keeper. We need to look at the spade pip that was led.

[Robert Chance]

Post by Player
Really Robert? This one almost snuck through to the keeper. We need to look at the spade pip that was led.

We haven't been told what oppo's leadership style is. Where I come from it is usual to lead 3rd and 5th in partner's suit, so the smallest card would be led from xxx.

[Player]

For me and everyone I have played with, low shows an honour, so here xxx.

[Player]

Jxx Damn autocorrect!

[Charles Brenner]

Post by Robert Chance

Post by Lorne Anderson
Strange defense given it looks like RHO has 4 spades and a spade
continuation will beat 3N.

It isn't that strange a defence, particularly at matchpoints - if RHO has (say) KQTxxx Axx xx xx then a heart switch could easily be the winning defence (RHO does not know you do not have the jack of spades).

With AJx of spades and weakness elsewhere, declarer would be either desperate or foolish to duck the first trick & might have bid NT sooner, so I'm less sympathetic with the heart switch from that hand though it might be what happened. Another possibility is RHO holding something like KQ10xxx, xx, x, Q10xx (and imagining Axx, AKx, Kxx, xxxx with declarer). That construction gives LHO credit for ducking the heart Ace without a tell -- safe enough but shows quick thinking.

Lorne's line looks good to me but dunno if it qualifies as a "rare play" so I figure Dave has something else up his sleeve.

[Robert Chance]

Post by Charles Brenner
With AJx of spades and weakness elsewhere, declarer would be either desperate or foolish to duck the first trick & might have bid NT sooner, so I'm less sympathetic with the heart switch from that hand though it might be what happened.

I think you are attributing your opponents with an expertise in micro-analysis that is perhaps unusual amongst players at club level. To me, the heart switch indicates that

(1) RHO does not know that partner has the jack of spades;
(2) RHO has the ace of hearts (where I come from, East's lead of the two suggest an honour in the suit), plus few players would be able to duck the ace smoothly. Ducking would be a poor play if partner held QTx(x); it is not impossible that declarer might play the king from Kxx at matchpoints;
(3) RHO does not have the guarded queen of clubs (as I stated in my earlier post). Holding guards in clubs and hearts, RHO would be tempted to continue with spades.

It would appear from Dave's second post that all of these assumptions are correct.

To tackle your explicit point, and remembering this is matchpoints, suppose declarer held:

AJx
Kxx
KJx
Qxxx

Now it would be normal play for declarer to duck at trick one, and a heart switch is the only realistic hope to hold declarer to 10 tricks. Declarer might get it right, but that is risking going down (incidentally, this is why it is very hard for LHO to duck the ace smoothly).

[Charles Brenner]

Post by Lorne Anderson

Post by Dave Flower
N E S W
1D 1S 2C pass
3C pass 3NT all pass
2
J 9 4
A Q 6 4 3
A K J 8
A 8 7
K Q 3
K J 2
7 5 3 2
S4 S2 SQ S7
H2 HK H5 H4
Take it from there...
David Flower

Strange defense given it looks like RHO has 4 spades and a spade
continuation will beat 3N.
I play club to K, diamond to K and lead a club. ... If LHO discards I
rise and play a heart which also gets 10 tricks.

Only if RHO holds the heart Ace. Aside from whether underleading it at trick 2 is a logical play, it would place RHO with at least 3 hearts to go with 5+ spades & 4+ clubs -- not many hands.

So there's a reasonable case for taking the guaranteed 9 or 10 tricks by playing another heart early.

[Tom]

Post by Dave Flower
N E S W
1D 1S 2C pass
3C pass 3NT all pass
2
J 9 4
A Q 6 4 3
A K J 8
A 8 7
K Q 3
K J 2
7 5 3 2
S4 S2 SQ S7
H2 HK H5 H4
Take it from there...
David Flower

Fun hand. Opps were kind not returning H. It seems right to first lead a
H setting up the 10th trick. Cash CK and run the Cs and Ds ending in
hand coming down to dummy: C KJ8 and hand: S8 C 75. The opps discarding
will probably tell you what to do (counr # of Ss left).

Tom Reid

[Dave Flower]

Post by Dave Flower
N E S W
1D 1S 2C pass
3C pass 3NT all pass
2
J 9 4
A Q 6 4 3
A K J 8
A 8 7
K Q 3
K J 2
7 5 3 2
S4 S2 SQ S7
H2 HK H5 H4
Take it from there...
David Flower

Playing on clubs guarantees ten tricks (assuming diamonds not 5-0), with eleven tricks if the clubs oblige.

At the table, I played a club to the king, returned to the DK (both following) and finessed the CJ successfully (both following). I then reached the following end position, with the lead in dummy:

-
J
-
8
K
immat- A
erial -
-
8
-
-
7

I led the C8 from dummy, and East was caught in a pseudo-squeeze. West was good enough to remember that there was a club out (I had bid the suit), but not good enough to realize that the C8 was the top club out!

Making 12 tricks

Dave Flower

PS The play is described in Reese's book 'Play bridge with Reese', hand 48