Best Answer: ♦ A and
♠10
Against 3NT your partner leads the ♦ Q. What will you do?
As the declarer shows a balanced hand and as partner likely leads a top of sequence from their long suit, it seems that partner has ♦ QJ10x and declarer has ♦ Kx, though partner might lead from ♦ QJx.
It's also known that the declarer doesn’t have 4 cards in any major as they don’t support Hearts or bid 1♠. Therefore, declarer's distribution is likely 3-3-2-5, or could be 3-3-3-4.
In addition, it's clear that the ♣A and the ♠A are both with the declarer as partner has a maximum of 6 points. It means that opponents have at least 24. Given you have 10, and you already saw the ♦ QJ, your partner can't hold an ace.
If you win the ♦ A and continue with a diamond, the declarer will take the ♦ K and try the Heart finesse. Upon winning the ♥ K, you'll continue with another Diamond, but the defense will take only 3 Diamonds and a Heart, and the declarer will make 9 tricks.
Therefore, to set the contract you need to hope that partner has the ♠Q and play accordingly in order to make 3 Spade tricks.
Playing the ♠10 will make sure of 3 Spade tricks, assuming partner indeed has the ♠Q, otherwise there's no chance to set. If the declarer plays low, your ♠10 will make the trick and you'll continue attacking Spades. If the declarer takes the ♠A, your Spades are promoted and you'll make 3 more spade tricks after you win the ♥ K. If the declarer covers with the ♠J, partner will take with the ♠Q and return Spade to continue developing your Spades, if dummy plays low, you play the ♠7, and if they try the ♠9 you cover with the ♠K to promote your ♠87.
If, instead of the ♠10, you'll play the ♠7 at trick 2, the declarer will play low and your partner will need to win with the ♠Q, as the ♠9 is in dummy, and now declarer's Spades are protected as they make both ♠AJ in their hand.
If you try the ♠K at trick 2, the declarer will take the ♠A and their Spades are still protected as after ♥ K, if you play low, they can run it to the ♠9, promoting the ♠J and if you play the ♠10, they win with the ♠J, promoting the ♠9.
Note:
a. Count partner's points and distribution, when on defense. It isn't hard, as usually the declarer's hand is known. As in this case, declarer bidding suggest they have 12-14 points, balanced hand, and no 4 cards in any major. That means, partner has 4-6 points, no more than 4 cards in Diamond and from the lead partner has ♦ QJ, no side aces, and the declarer has the ♦ K and the missing aces.
b. When you see that the only way to set is to hope that partner has a certain card, then assume they have it, and play accordingly. Here, assuming partner has the ♠Q, is the only way to set, by developing 3 Spade tricks and the only winning card to play is the ♠10. Here, there's a reasonable chance to find partner with the ♠Q as the declarer is already known to have ♠A, ♣A and ♦ K.
Best Answer: ♣Q
You play 3NT. West leads the ♠ K. You hold up twice and win the ♠A on the 3rd round. All players follow the suit. How will you continue?
You have 6 tricks on top (1 Club, 3 Diamonds, 1 Heart, 1 Spade). There are many potential tricks available: develop Heart, develop Clubs and also 4th Diamond could be high.
The Club suit looks most promising. If you play ♣A and then ♣Q, opponents might hold up, and now still missing 2 tricks. You still need to try the Hearts. If you lose it to the ♥ K, opponents might take also the ♣K and the 4th Spade for 1 down (3 Spades, Club and Heart).
If you try ♦ A and Club finesse, you can make 9 tricks if the finesse works as now you can move quickly to Hearts to develop 2 more tricks. However, if you play ♦ A and try Club finesse, which fails, you'll lose the entry to Clubs.
If you play Hearts from hand, you develop 2 more Hearts, and then you can test the 4th Diamond, and if it fails try the Club finesse for the 9th trick. It can only make if either Diamonds are 3-3 or the Club finesse is success.
The line which brings 100% success is to play ♣Q from hand. If Opponents win with the ♣K, they can take the 4th Spade, but you can make the rest without touching the Heart suit. You still have the ♦ A to enter dummy and make 4 Clubs, 1 Spade, 1 Heart and 3 Diamonds. If Opponents hold up the ♣Q, you move straight to the Heart suit and avoid losing to the ♣K. Then, you make ♣AQ, 3 Diamonds, 1 Spade, and 3 Hearts.
Note :
When you need to develop more than 1 suit, you sometimes need to "snitch" a trick. That means to play the suit in such a way that it'll be too expensive for opponents to win the trick. If they win it, they promote lots of tricks for you (Clubs here) and if they don’t, they'll lose the trick they could have won as you move to another suit.
Timing and tempo. By playing ♣AQ, you develop the ♣K for opponents as the setting trick. West hold up and win it later after winning the ♥ K.
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How could you play the 4 hands when 2 were blank , advise please as i want to improve , were you meant to work out the other hands , hard for a new player
on Hand 3, dont most play that the 1NT rebid could include 4 cards in the other major and have a mechanism for asking? If so, then it is not clear that declarer has less than 4S.
Thanks for the valuable suggestions
On board 3, would be good to mention that NS are playing a strong NT. Locally (NZ) weak NT is much more common than strong. With a weak NT the 1NT rebid is of course 15-17.
Thank you for that, 'twas fun.
Can't type or proofread ........ Comment about Betty Kaplan was about board 3
#3 not 100% clear since if declarer doesn't hold the heart T and only has four clubs, he may not be able to come to nine tricks without you setting up a diamond trick for him by overtaking partner's diamond Q from QJx
Hand 4 looks very familiar. Is it, by any chance, Betty Kaplan's SSSSSSScintilating hand?
Many thanks. I have been following this column for a while and it is always clear and comprehensive.
Excellent material, as usual, especially the play and defense hands. On hand 2, the answer is obvious with the choices you provided. But it's pretty standard to treat a 2H bid after 1D-1S-2D as an artificial one-round force, not natural. Many would make a conventional 2H call here.
That was great! Now if I can only remember to do what I've learned...
Very helpful. Thanks.
The extended discussion after each answer is extremely helpful.
Excellent and useful lesson !
Super
thanks very important information for bridge
no ty
Excellent once again. I learn so much from your notes.
Thank you, by applying your rules, my game has improved.
Very instructive hand 3. thank you
It is much easier here when you can see partners cards. That is not possible when playing
I always allow undos during any part of the bidding, but not after play starts, and I always play in the casual section.
One