[FrancesHinden]

You are East. Declarer is South. Dummy is North.

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IMPS. 2♣ was game forcing, they haven't really discussed delicate inferences about what the subsequent auction may or may not mean.
Partner leads the ace of hearts, then continues with the queen and nine; declarer wins the third heart with the king. What do you discard on these two heart tricks?

[gnasher]

Is it bad netiquette to bump somebody else's thread?

[Statto]

2 ♠. Need to keep the ♣ and don't want to give the ♦ position away. What I signal is another matter...

[bluecalm]

If declarer has 5 clubs then he has 8 tricks without A♠ so we can spades safely as partner needs to have the card.
If declarer has only 4 clubs he probably doesn't have 4 spades so again spades look fine.
Both our minor nines could be crucial so it looks like easy discards at first glance but I am sure I am missing something here

[FrancesHinden]

gnasher, on 2012-May-20, 15:27, said:

Is it bad netiquette to bump somebody else's thread?

Not when you were west.

[kenberg]

Does partner have the ace of spades? It sort of seems so. Without a quick entry he might have started differently, for example he might have started with the Q of hearts. If declarer had Kx and I had Jx, this would work well. Also, after the first heart, partner was free to choose among the QT9 for his second play. Choosing the Q suggests an entry in spades.

Does the hand then play itself, making if declarer has nine tricks on top, failing otherwise?

There is the usual clue that the hand would not be posted if that were the case.

Suppose partner's shape is 2-6-4-1 and declarer can and does run his five clubs. Give partner Qxxx in diamonds, what does he pitch on the run of the clubs?

After four clubs, that's after seven tricks, he can hold A/Tx/Qxx. He holds cards to beat the hand. On the next club, what? If I have held my diamond 9, he can pitch another diamond. If I pitched a diamond then he must hold the diamond length and pitch a heart. If declarer reads it, he can now play a small spade establishing the king. Partner is in, but after cashing the heart he plays a diamond and no matter which diamond he chooses, declarer gets two diamonds and a spade. That's 1+1+2+5=9.


So I had better hold that diamond. Since I can also think of cases where I need to hold the clubs, namely if pard has, say, QT tight, I guess I have to toss two spades. I don't like it and it could be wrong, but it seems to me partner has advertised a spade card. I hope he has it.

[gnasher]

Do you think there's any significance to partner's play of ♥9 on the third round of the suit?

[bluecalm]

Can we have some more discussion or a "solution" from OP ?
I am really curious what's the hidden point of the hand.

[kenberg]

gnasher, on 2012-May-23, 08:29, said:

Do you think there's any significance to partner's play of ♥9 on the third round of the suit?

I was wondering about that as well. On the second round, he coould not know he would still be holding the trick so I put the most weight on his trick 2 card. His trick 3 card is completely free so maybe it's just "I am not trying to send any message with this third card"

[gnasher]

Sorry, there's no hidden point. ♥9 was just a pointlessly misleading card.

West (me) had AJx AQ109xx QJ10 x. My partner did discard a diamond, because he assumed that with my actual hand I would have played ♥10 instead of the ♥9, so he was being asked to hold onto his spades. I don't think that stands up to analysis, but it doesn't make ♥9 any less stupid. Anyway, I got what I deserved, suffering the three-suit squeeze described by Kenberg.

[y66]

Nice analysis by kenberg. I don't understand how East can decide not to protect diamonds regardless of which heart you play at trick 3.

[Fluffy]

♥9 sounds like diamonds preference to me, the bidding makes it clear that south doesn't hold 4 spades, so pitching 2 spades looks easy. Pitching 2 diamonds would make ♦QJx or ♦Q10x finesseable, but I didn't see the danger for just one.

[kenberg]

Basking in the glow of (for a change) getting something right, I want to dwell on the fact that at trick 2 the defender could not know that he would be holding the trick. Declare's hearts might well have been Kx. Therefore defender's heart play at trick 2 should carry the message that he wants to send. But as he notes, there is a lot to be said for continuing this message with the ten rather than the nine at trick three.

I guess the lesson is that when you are lucky enough to have a partner who pays attention to your choice of card, you should be careful about what you say!