[jeffford76]

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Partner leads the ♣7, and follows to the second high club with the ♣6. On the third high club partner pitches ♦6. Discards are upside down attitude. Now what?

[mike777]

edit

I guess a spade now?

[broze]

Nice problem. Opps are clearly in a Moysian so LHO is 3343 or 2353. I don't really know what to make of pard's D discard except that it implies he's not guarding diamonds at all so it may have suit preference implications. That suggests playing a club for a promotion.

You have to play a spade if LHO has KQJ♥ because giving up the ruff and discard will be fatal. A club will work when p has Q or Jxxx in trumps which is more likely. If declarer ruffs high then there just aren't enough tricks.

If p did have a hand where he does need a spade switch but can't clearly encourage (e.g. KJ9) I feel sure he would have played a high D at trick three. The 6 is probably either middle from 3 or bottom from 9876. EDIT: (in fact if p does have 9876 he might have to get rid of one so that if you go for the promotion he can ruff a diamond when opps run them).

[nigel_k]

Declarer having precisely KQJ of hearts and a side loser seems less likely than KQx/KJ9/QJ9 of hearts and no side loser. Partner also could maybe have helped by ruffing the third club and exiting passively if he has a trick somewhere.

[JLOGIC]

Club is normal in these types of spots when they're in the moysian. Partner with the spade king would certainly have just pitched an encouraging spade. If partner did not think they had the right spot card to do that, they could ruff and play a diamond. But really any spade pitch should imply no trump trick, as partner would be quickly getting rid of their diamonds if they thought a ruff sluff could beat it to avoid any trump coup (pitching diamonds obviously means they can ruff a diamond later). For instance if partner had Qxx Q743 xxxx xx, pitching 2 diamonds is the only way to beat the contract. If partner tried pitching 2 spades, dummy would pitch a spade then after trump trump, 4 rounds of diamonds spade spade it makes. If partner pitched 1 diamond and 1 spade, dummy can pitch a diamond and do the same thing except cashing 2 trumps, 3 diamonds, 2 spades, and trump coup (note covering the jack of hearts doesn't help since the T5 of hearts remains a tenace over 7x).

So pitching a diamond is a forced technical play. Thus any spade pitch should really be from the SK asking for no ruff/sluff.

Edit: Or a hand that has a natural diamond trick (which also would not want a ruff sluff).

[jeffford76]

Those who responded are correct - the ruff/sluff beats the hand. I missed this at the table. Partner had J9xx of hearts, so after pitching another heart on the club ruffed from KQ7, he cannot be trump couped.