[cherdano]

This hand is not difficult as a problem, but the theme is very common and often missed by B/I's when it comes up.

Scoring: IMP

1♥-P-1N-X
2♣-2♠-3♣-3♠
4♣-All pass

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Partner leads ♦5, and the first trick goes 5-2-K-9.

So your off-shape double (not everyone's choice I suppose) worked well, how do you plan your defense to capitalize from pushing opponents into 4♣?
Adv+ please hide your answers.

[Quantumcat]

Hi there, I'm very much a beginner (been playing about nine months) but I'll have a go at answering the question (will probably learn something from the corrections :-))

What is partner's lead? There are three diamonds besides the ones you can see. She might have Qx5 or 5 singleton, can't be doubleton because you can see 432. The declarer followed so it must be a singleton. So declarer has Q9 in diamonds.

Declarer probably had 5 clubs so partner has three. Could cash diamond king and lead another diamond, maybe partner has 10xx so if declarer trumps with club ace or queen, he can't draw partner's ten any more and it's a trick for us. Is it reasonable to hope she has 10xx? I think so ... she might lead a spade if she held three low trumps.

So, that makes three tricks. What about our fourth? Easy ... spade ace. Then when partner gets in maybe she can cash her spade king. But declarer might discard his spades on his JT of diamonds? Should we cash two spades before doing diamonds? No ... partner might have five (she did make a free bid after all) and declarer might only have one. He can't have none ... partner must have a couple of points to have made a free bid, and if she had 6 spades she would have bid 2♠ over 1♥.

Declarer will be able to get his diamonds so we probably won't get the spade king too. But we get four tricks and that's what counts!

I hope this answer is right :-)

[gwnn]

Spoiler

declarer looks to be 1525. i'm trying the K of D, Ace of S and then a diamond for the trump prom. will work with Axxxx of trump @ declarer. If this doesn't work it's hard to see what might.... if pd has a H winner he'll probably get it anywho.

[skjaeran]

Nice point.

Spoiler

South seems to be marked with 1525 distribution and partner with 5413.
I can see three tricks - ♠A, and ♦AK. We need a third trick to defeat the contract. Unless partner's got the ♥A (he won't), this must be a trump trick. So we'll try for a trump promotion. The whole point is to cash the ♠A before playing the 3rd round of ♦'s, else declarer will just throw his singleton.

Thus, I win ♦K, ♠A and ♦A and lead another ♦.