[pclayton]

Scoring: IMP

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You are silent:

1♣ on right, 1♦ on left, 1N on right (Walsh; does not deny a 4 card major) - 3N on left.

You choose to lead the ♠2, K, A, 6. Pard cashes the ♠Q, 7, ......

Your play?

[FrancesHinden]

If partner has the SJ he is going to play it next, whatever we do, and we give suit preference next round accordingly.

If partner started with AQ9 and declarer has Jxx, then why didn't declarer play low from dummy? Answer, because he is wide open in hearts or clubs and wanted to win a trick quickly.

So we don't want partner to play a third spade. Partner will be aware that the King from dummy is a strange play whatever declarer's holding, so he will be alert to doing something odd - so arguably we should simply play our second lowest spade, and hope he reads that as suit preference.

The S10 is the only card that partner will know is unusual, but I worry that he will think that is suit pref for hearts: looking at, say, AQx Q10xx xx J10xx a heart back could easily be right - how can he tell the difference between Jxx Kxx Kx AKxx and Jxx AKxx Kx Qxxx in declarer's hand without our help?

So all in all I think I need to trust partner to work out not to continue spades, and just tell him which suit to switch to.

[mikeh]

FrancesHinden, on Mar 15 2007, 10:22 AM, said:

If partner has the SJ he is going to play it next, whatever we do, and we give suit preference next round accordingly.

If partner started with AQ9 and declarer has Jxx, then why didn't declarer play low from dummy? Answer, because he is wide open in hearts or clubs and wanted to win a trick quickly.

So we don't want partner to play a third spade. Partner will be aware that the King from dummy is a strange play whatever declarer's holding, so he will be alert to doing something odd - so arguably we should simply play our second lowest spade, and hope he reads that as suit preference.

The S10 is the only card that partner will know is unusual, but I worry that he will think that is suit pref for hearts: looking at, say, AQx Q10xx xx J10xx a heart back could easily be right - how can he tell the difference between Jxx Kxx Kx AKxx and Jxx AKxx Kx Qxxx in declarer's hand without our help?

So all in all I think I need to trust partner to work out not to continue spades, and just tell him which suit to switch to.

agreed. We cannot give in to the temptation to play the magic ♣10: partner can hardly ever go right. Unfortunately, even thinking about this is going to communicate info to partner.... oh well

[pclayton]

If Pard is holding ♠AQJ, should pard continue the ♠Q or the ♠J at T2?

[FrancesHinden]

pclayton, on Mar 15 2007, 03:36 PM, said:

If Pard is holding ♠AQJ, should pard continue the ♠Q or the ♠J at T2?

OK, probably the Jack. But
i) He might not think of it (because he's going to play the other honour next anyway), and
ii) He's going to play a third spade if he has AQJ anyway, so our card to this trick should be on the assumption he doesn't.

and we should just ignore the possibility

[Fluffy]

If I were our partner, I wouldn't read any card as play a club please, that's why I don't lead 4th♠ without a honnor.

♠8 as frances says is probaly best card for it, but I don't think it is odd enough.

[skjaeran]

I'd have led the ♠8, but that's got no bearing on the problem at hand.

100% agree with Frances and Mike. Follow with the ♠4 in tempo.

[pclayton]

FrancesHinden, on Mar 15 2007, 07:58 AM, said:

pclayton, on Mar 15 2007, 03:36 PM, said:

If Pard is holding ♠AQJ, should pard continue the ♠Q or the ♠J at T2?

OK, probably the Jack. But
i) He might not think of it (because he's going to play the other honour next anyway), and
ii) He's going to play a third spade if he has AQJ anyway, so our card to this trick should be on the assumption he doesn't.

and we should just ignore the possibility

Well; thats sort of my point. We should assume declarer definitely has the Jack.

Does that have any bearing on our play?

By the way, I don't think there's a clear-cut answer here, but I'm trying to stimulate the debate.

[mikeh]

Fluffy, on Mar 15 2007, 11:14 AM, said:

If I were our partner, I wouldn't read any card as play a club please, that's why I don't lead 4th♠ without a honnor.

♠8 as frances says is probaly best card for it, but I don't think it is odd enough.

The 10 is generally considered to be an honour card.

And to lead the 8 from 108xx when declarer could hold a 4 card suit seems wrong

[FrancesHinden]

I didn't say the 8, I said I would give SP here, which means playing the 4 and hoping partner works out declarer has the Jack.

I agree there isn't an obvious answer.

[marcD]

I am probably missing something : S4 seems the normal card to play. I do not want partner to switch to a heart. If declarer has SJ, i will tell partner to hold his cards closer to his chest . PArtner is likely to have AQJ and probably did not want to play SJ first lets it should show a club honour. on the SJ i will play S8 discouraging again a H switch


btw , i prefer S2 lead to S8 which may create some confusion . I am not sure when i lead that I want parrtner to switch to a clead. I might consider S8 with AKJx or AK10x in club

[Free]

♠4 seems the normal card, and we're still at T2