[inquiry]

Your agreement on this hand is to lead 6th best from a six card suit that you have shown length in, and 4th best from five or seven cards in the same suit. So you start the heart 3.

Partner's spade 4 discard was "suit preference", partner does not want a heart or spade return if this was a low spade and would have interest in a club return. Partner's heart 4 was "remaining count" show an even number of hearts remaining when the heart was discarded. Partner's spade 2 was two signals in one (legal at that). The first is remaining count showing an even number of spades left. The second shows that he could have discarded the ♠2 instead of the ♠4 as suit preference (lavinthal) and then played the ♠4 so partner is not all that interested in a club return, but then you have the ♣King and can see the ace.

The key play comes late in the hand. To see the play to that point, click next enough times to get to the end of play. What do you play to trick 7 after you win your ♥Queen?

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[Antrax]

Partner started with 3 hearts and 1 diamond. He must have at least 5 spades or declarer would've opened spades. HCP-wise, giving declarer (which we know is 4-4-3-2) at least 11 HCP to open, even white on red, that leaves 7 or less HCP for partner (probably less give the signals), of which we already saw the heart king.
If partner has the club queen we've already won, since declarer won't be able to discard two clubs from dummy even if he has four spades. So let's assume he has the club jack third or fourth. Now I'm stuck since it seems practically any club return works if declarer has Q8x(x) in clubs.

[MrAce]

Antrax, on 2011-September-02, 00:03, said:

Now I'm stuck since it seems practically any club return works if declarer has Q8x(x) in clubs.

Yes, but still play small ♣ incase declarer may have something like (w/o ♣8, he can still establish ♣ suit but can not use 4th ♣ due to lack of entry)

Jxx
Ax
Axxx
QJxx

[Antrax]

Why would partner show a lack of interest in spades if he has the spade queen, but show an interest in clubs with the club 8?

[MrAce]

Antrax, on 2011-September-02, 03:06, said:

Why would partner show a lack of interest in spades if he has the spade queen, but show an interest in clubs with the club 8?

Who cares, you lose nothing by not playing ♣T or K out of curiosity. He never showed any interest in ♣ by the way, had he wanted to, he would have started with ♠ 2. Do you want to win the post mortem argument with partner or do you want to defeat 5♦ ?

[Antrax]

I'm trying to learn. Would partner not encourage in spades looking at queen-fifth after the king? He probably figures us for some points after a 2-level vulnerable overcall.

[inquiry]

<editorial content>
The signaling is not all that critical here (spade count of course is), but you would have wanted to know if you could under led the heart queen. With ♥KJx partner would have discarded a highish spade (he already denied the Queen when he played the King). That signal WOULD have been useful if he had the heart JACK.

Now back to the problem hand....
</editorial content>

[vuroth]

9 spades in S/E at the start, E having even count. 5/4 makes no sense (we'd be defending 4S), so 3/6 then. So partner is 6313, declarer 3244.

Even if south holds QJ87♣, he can't avoid a club loser if he has to break the suit. Any club I lead could potentially give him 3 club tricks, depending on his holding.

I may be trashing partner's QS, but I'll continue with a heart.

Assuming that's right, though, I'm not sure I "get" the diamond bid.

[Antrax]

Why can't declarer have three clubs and four spades? When partner's signal says he has an even number "left" doesn't it mean he had an odd number before?

[shyams]

I would give a ruff and discard in ♥ at this time. I cannot think of hands where leading a club can gain compared to giving a ruff & discard.

One can construct a hand for South like ♠QJ93 ♥AJ ♦A953 ♣xxx where a ruff & discard is fatal. But then partner's signals so far make no sense. That's why I like the ruff & discard option

[MrAce]

shyams, on 2011-September-03, 10:31, said:

I would give a ruff and discard in ♥ at this time. I cannot think of hands where leading a club can gain compared to giving a ruff & discard.

One can construct a hand for South like ♠QJ93 ♥AJ ♦A953 ♣xxx where a ruff & discard is fatal. But then partner's signals so far make no sense. That's why I like the ruff & discard option

I was refering to Antrax reply about it doesnt matter which ♣ we choose, if we decide to play ♣. Which was probably a nonsense discussion started by me.

Spoiler

You and Vuroth are of course right, that playing ♥ is winner

[han]

Some criticism on what I think is a good lesson hand in a very good series:

I find the 2H bid a bit offensive. The defensive methods are a distraction at best.

[inquiry]

I cut and paste the hands to move them around for presentation. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the vulnerability (on the actual hand, the 2♥ overcaller was north and not vulnerable). I will try to get the vul right in the future. I HAVE ADJUSTED THE VUL NOW IN THIS PROBLEM. The signal stuff was just to keep you from trying to underlead the ♥Queen to get off lead. Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered.

I thought this was a good hand for two reasons, The first is we are all taught not to give declarer a ruff-and-sluff, so hands were that is the key play are often screwed up on defense, and this was an easy one to see that this the right defense. The second one is that no one found the play against 5♦. I actually removed the heart jack from defender to south so that underleading the heart queen would not be right. No one underled the queen to the jack(which would have worked on the real hand) and no one gave up a ruff and sluff against diamond contracts (any level). Perhaps editorializing wasn't necessary, but seemed reasonable to focus the attention on figuring out the right play. Remember this is beginner, intermediate forum so it takes a lot to get over the phobia of giving up a ruff and a sluff.

[Antrax]

Inquiry, could you give the full layout?

[inquiry]

Antrax, on 2011-September-05, 10:29, said:

Inquiry, could you give the full layout?

Real hand NS was vul and EW not, and East had the heart JACK and South the heart nine. This is the hand we are playing with here, however.

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[Antrax]

Is it correct that if declarer plays the spade T under the ace, he makes the contract?

[BunnyGo]

Antrax, on 2011-September-05, 12:12, said:

Is it correct that if declarer plays the spade T under the ace, he makes the contract?

Yes, he'll likely make in that case. Good spot.

[Antrax]

The reason I got to looking at it is that I can't make any intuitive sense of the notion that a ruff and sluff is ever the best defense. Why can such a situation exist? Is it always because of lack of entries to cash the extra winners?

[BunnyGo]

Here's a hand from pages 17-18 of "The Bridge Bum". Note that the best defense (found here) gives declarer two ruff and sluffs.

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This line puts declarer to a guess in diamonds now. He can take the finesse, or try to drop the queen by ruffing a diamond.

Edit: I should say (I am not as experienced with diagrams to just type it in) that North was Garozzo, South was Forquet, West was Sontag and East was Weichsel.

After 10 minutes, Sontag did guess correctly for a push.

[Antrax]

Is that the best declarer play? Why not discard a club on the heart, ruff in the long hand, cash top clubs and diamonds and try a cross-ruff line?