ruff or not ?

[dfm]

Matchpoints, both vulnerable. You have:

A1054
KQJ63
J8
J8

LHO deals, and the auction goes:

P P 1H P
1S P 2C P
2H P P P

You lead the heart K and see this dummy:

Q763
85
K963
A65

Partner follows with the 10, and declarer wins the A.

Then declarer plays a club to dummy's A and a club back to his K, dropping your J. Partner follows with the 3 (standard count) and the 9.

Now declarer leads the club 10. Do you ruff? Why or why not?

[KWSchneider]

Post by dfm
A1054
KQJ63
J8
J8
P P 1H P
1S P 2C P
2H P P P
Q763
85
K963
A65
Partner follows with the 10, and declarer wins the A.

The way I read this is that opener is probably:

x
A9xxx
Ax
KQxxx

He has 2D, 2H, 3C off the top. Every club you ruff sets up a trump trick. His transportation is diamonds.

I do not ruff - I discard a diamond.

Scenario 1 - you ruff high and lead the HQ, then SA then spade. He ruffs. He returns CQ, you ruff. Spade, he ruffs. High heart, then 5th club and two diamonds, making 4h, 3c, 2d.

Scenario 2 - you discard diamond. He ruffs in dummy, leads diamond to hand. Returns CQ, you ruff. One high heart, then SA, then spade, he ruffs. 5th club ruff. Spade ruff. Diamond ruff, spade ruff. 4h, 3c, 1d.

Kurt

[Robert Chance]

If declarer does have the hand you suggest, it means that declarer has read the trump position correctly (otherwise, declarer would be likely to duck at trick one, or return a trump at trick two). That means that discarding does not work - declarer just cashes the ace of diamonds and runs clubs through us, emerging with nine tricks. We do better to ruff the club low, draw dummy's trump and play a forcing game, which holds declarer to eight tricks.

I think it more likely that partner has the queen of clubs, which means that discarding is correct. We need partner to switch to a spade so that we can draw dummy's last trump, so the correct discard is one which tells partner to do this.

[jogs]

Post by dfm
A1054
KQJ63
J8
J8
P P 1H P
1S P 2C P
2H P P P
Q763
85
K963
A65
Partner follows with the 10, and declarer wins the A.
Then declarer plays a club to dummy's A and a club back to his K, dropping your J. Partner follows with the 3 (standard count) and the 9.
Now declarer leads the club 10. Do you ruff? Why or why not?

Well, the beginner would have lead 4th best.

[Player]

Post by dfm
A1054
KQJ63
J8
J8
P P 1H P
1S P 2C P
2H P P P
Q763
85
K963
A65
Partner follows with the 10, and declarer wins the A.
Then declarer plays a club to dummy's A and a club back to his K, dropping your J. Partner follows with the 3 (standard count) and the 9.
Now declarer leads the club 10. Do you ruff? Why or why not?

D discard for the same reasons as Kurt.