Matchpoints defence problem

[a***@yahoo.co.uk]

I held this hand as South:

J4
82
AT73
AQT64

Opponents playing Acol.

N E S W
P 1H P 1S
P 2H AP

Maybe there is a case for doubling 2H to show the minors, I have a tendency to be somewhat conservative on raggy semi-balanced non-descript hands.

I lead the DA, anmd dummy comes down with:

KQT3
543
985
J72

It goes A-5-6-K

I wasn't sure the best way to continue. The spades in dummy looked dangerous to me and it looked like we have to either set up or cash tricks asap, so a passive diamond cxontinuation looked wrong. I didn't see anything appealing in leading a major so decided to attack clubs. This is where I went wrong. I led the ace, and a small one to partners king. As he had a doubleton, I had blocked the suit, so never got to enjoy the third club trick as declarer got in, drew trumps and discarded the club loser on the fourth spade. The problem I had is that if partner has the SA and declarer has the CK, I need to passively exit with a diamond and partner can play a club through Kx or Kxx when he gets in. If partner has the CK and not the SA, I have to lead a low club to avoid blocking the suit. If partner has neither black honor, I should cash the club ace, which is what I did, but thinking about it was wrong as East would likely have jumped to 3H holding both honors. Thus I have to guess which black honor partner holds. If I guess incorrectly I blow at least one trick. Is there a way of working out which is the most likely to be the correct play?

Thankfully this didn't turn out to be a terrible score, as four other EW pairs out of the other six were making 10 or 11 tricks in hearts.

The full deal was:

9865
Q9
QJ642
K8
KQT3 A72
543 AKJT76
985 K
J72 953
J4
82
AT73
AQT64

[Charles Brenner]

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk
J4
82
AT73
AQT64
Opponents playing Acol.
N E S W
P 1H P 1S
P 2H AP
Maybe there is a case for doubling 2H to show the minors, I have a tendency to be somewhat conservative on raggy semi-balanced non-descript hands.
KQT3
543
985
J72
It goes A-5-6-K
I wasn't sure the best way to continue. The spades in dummy looked dangerous to me and it looked like we have to either set up or cash tricks asap, so a passive diamond cxontinuation looked wrong. I didn't see anything appealing in leading a major so decided to attack clubs. This is where I went wrong. I led the ace, and a small one to partners king. As he had a doubleton, I had blocked the suit, so never got to enjoy the third club trick as declarer got in, drew trumps and discarded the club loser on the fourth spade. The problem I had is that if partner has the SA and declarer has the CK, I need to passively exit with a diamond and partner can play a club through Kx or Kxx when he gets in. If partner has the CK and not the SA, I have to lead a low club to avoid blocking the suit. If partner has neither black honor, I should cash the club ace, which is what I did, but thinking about it was wrong as East would likely have jumped to 3H holding both honors. Thus I have to guess which black honor partner holds. If I guess incorrectly I blow at least one trick. Is there a way of working out which is the most likely to be the correct play?
Thankfully this didn't turn out to be a terrible score, as four other EW pairs out of the other six were making 10 or 11 tricks in hearts.
9865
Q9
QJ642
K8
KQT3 A72
543 AKJT76
985 K
J72 953
J4
82
AT73
AQT64

Troublesome indeed. Besides the sA or cK, partner might have hA -- which from your point of view is another reason not to find the winning low club.

But partner's card at trick 1 must mean something. Apparently partner meant to encourage but why? Shouldn't partner, able to see the danger of the spade suit in the same way you did, be thinking of active rather than passive defense for the same reason you did? Had partner played d2 you'd have a better chance to get the defense right.

I see that I've (partly) solved the problem by blaming partner. Of course it's bad form to ever blame ones partner and I wouldn't. But I think it's ok for me to blame *your* partner.

[a***@yahoo.co.uk]

Post by Charles Brenner

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk
J4
82
AT73
AQT64
Opponents playing Acol.
N E S W
P 1H P 1S
P 2H AP
Maybe there is a case for doubling 2H to show the minors, I have a tendency to be somewhat conservative on raggy semi-balanced non-descript hands.
KQT3
543
985
J72
It goes A-5-6-K
I wasn't sure the best way to continue. The spades in dummy looked dangerous to me and it looked like we have to either set up or cash tricks asap, so a passive diamond cxontinuation looked wrong. I didn't see anything appealing in leading a major so decided to attack clubs. This is where I went wrong. I led the ace, and a small one to partners king. As he had a doubleton, I had blocked the suit, so never got to enjoy the third club trick as declarer got in, drew trumps and discarded the club loser on the fourth spade. The problem I had is that if partner has the SA and declarer has the CK, I need to passively exit with a diamond and partner can play a club through Kx or Kxx when he gets in. If partner has the CK and not the SA, I have to lead a low club to avoid blocking the suit. If partner has neither black honor, I should cash the club ace, which is what I did, but thinking about it was wrong as East would likely have jumped to 3H holding both honors. Thus I have to guess which black honor partner holds. If I guess incorrectly I blow at least one trick. Is there a way of working out which is the most likely to be the correct play?
Thankfully this didn't turn out to be a terrible score, as four other EW pairs out of the other six were making 10 or 11 tricks in hearts.
9865
Q9
QJ642
K8
KQT3 A72
543 AKJT76
985 K
J72 953
J4
82
AT73
AQT64

Troublesome indeed. Besides the sA or cK, partner might have hA -- which from your point of view is another reason not to find the winning low club.
But partner's card at trick 1 must mean something. Apparently partner meant to encourage but why? Shouldn't partner, able to see the danger of the spade suit in the same way you did, be thinking of active rather than passive defense for the same reason you did? Had partner played d2 you'd have a better chance to get the defense right.
I see that I've (partly) solved the problem by blaming partner. Of course it's bad form to ever blame ones partner and I wouldn't. But I think it's ok for me to blame *your* partner.

If partner was intending to encourage, I guess he is trying to tell me that a diamond continuation is safe. From his point of view, I am likely to have led from AK so he decided to encourage to tell me he has the Q and that playing the K at trick 2 won't cost. At the time partner plays to trick 1 he has no idea of the stiff K in declarers hand.

If partner had played the D2 at trick one, that suggests switching. Given a spade doesn't look promising that only leaves a club. Would I find the critical low club switch? I don't know, it requires a bit of faith and I can be a bit cowardly in situations where a switch is suggested but if it goes wrong it will go very wrong. This is why I'm not playing for England lol.

[Charles Brenner]

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk

Post by Charles Brenner

Post by a***@yahoo.co.uk
J4
82
AT73
AQT64
Opponents playing Acol.
N E S W
P 1H P 1S
P 2H AP
Maybe there is a case for doubling 2H to show the minors, I have a tendency to be somewhat conservative on raggy semi-balanced non-descript hands.
KQT3
543
985
J72
It goes A-5-6-K
I wasn't sure the best way to continue. The spades in dummy looked dangerous to me and it looked like we have to either set up or cash tricks asap, so a passive diamond cxontinuation looked wrong. I didn't see anything appealing in leading a major so decided to attack clubs. This is where I went wrong. I led the ace, and a small one to partners king. As he had a doubleton, I had blocked the suit, so never got to enjoy the third club trick as declarer got in, drew trumps and discarded the club loser on the fourth spade. The problem I had is that if partner has the SA and declarer has the CK, I need to passively exit with a diamond and partner can play a club through Kx or Kxx when he gets in. If partner has the CK and not the SA, I have to lead a low club to avoid blocking the suit. If partner has neither black honor, I should cash the club ace, which is what I did, but thinking about it was wrong as East would likely have jumped to 3H holding both honors. Thus I have to guess which black honor partner holds. If I guess incorrectly I blow at least one trick. Is there a way of working out which is the most likely to be the correct play?
Thankfully this didn't turn out to be a terrible score, as four other EW pairs out of the other six were making 10 or 11 tricks in hearts.
9865
Q9
QJ642
K8
KQT3 A72
543 AKJT76
985 K
J72 953
J4
82
AT73
AQT64

Troublesome indeed. Besides the sA or cK, partner might have hA -- which from your point of view is another reason not to find the winning low club.
But partner's card at trick 1 must mean something. Apparently partner meant to encourage but why? Shouldn't partner, able to see the danger of the spade suit in the same way you did, be thinking of active rather than passive defense for the same reason you did? Had partner played d2 you'd have a better chance to get the defense right.
I see that I've (partly) solved the problem by blaming partner. Of course it's bad form to ever blame ones partner and I wouldn't. But I think it's ok for me to blame *your* partner.

If partner was intending to encourage, I guess he is trying to tell me that a diamond continuation is safe. From his point of view, I am likely to have led from AK so he decided to encourage to tell me he has the Q and that playing the K at trick 2 won't cost. At the time partner plays to trick 1 he has no idea of the stiff K in declarers hand.
If partner had played the D2 at trick one, that suggests switching. Given a spade doesn't look promising that only leaves a club. Would I find the critical low club switch? I don't know, it requires a bit of faith and I can be a bit cowardly in situations where a switch is suggested but if it goes wrong it will go very wrong. This is why I'm not playing for England lol.

If you lead A from AKx that does seem to make it more complicated but I'm still dubious about the 6, rather than either Q or 2. The Q may feel risky lest declarer has K10x but that's unlikely and I can're really construct a deal where it would matter. But I still think the 2 is the card most likely to tell partner something useful. I agree your life still won't be easy but the unclear 6 is sure not help much.