[lmilne]

Swiss Pairs, IMP scoring. You will not agree with all the actions taken up to the decision point.

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Based on several factors, including the tempo of the auction and partner's known conservative streak, you double the final contract.

Expecting declarer to have spade shortage, and not seeing any obvious source of discards for a possible singleton spade (while holding trump control), you lead the ♥9.

Declarer wins the ♥King, cashes the ♥Queen, cashes the ♣Ace, and ruffs a club in the dummy. Now comes the ♥Ace, declarer pitching the deuce of spades.

Plan the defence.

[manudude03]

I'll play partner to have 2 club tricks. Ruff, ♦A,♦Q.

[WesleyC]

Partner's count signal in clubs feels like vital information here.

If declarer is 1255, it is safest to simply exit a top spade and wait for partner's (presumed) ♣K and 2 diamonds in the wash.

But if declarer is 1264 then we need to switch to diamonds right away and hope partner has ♣KJ or better.

If partner's count cards are unreliable, then 1264 feels much more likely based on the bidding so I would play for that.

[rhm]

manudude03, on 2015-March-30, 06:50, said:

I'll play partner to have 2 club tricks. Ruff, ♦A,♦Q.

This assumes declarer botchered the hand.
Against a weak declarer I play like that.
Otherwise against a competent declarer ♠A, which works when declarer is 5-5 in the minors and partner has the ♣K and little else.

Rainer Herrmann

[lmilne]

Ruffing and giving up your trump trick by playing ♦Ace, Queen is indeed the correct defence on the hand.

Full hand here: NSWBA

Declarer has misplayed the hand - all fine up to now except that they needed to ruff the heart with the ♦ 9 or 7 to get out for one down! Any other card is down two.

Partner has ♣KQ as well as the beautiful ♣7 so down 2 is routine after ruffing and returning the Ace, Queen of diamonds. Partner didn't get the hand right (cashed the other top club when the Jack was played around) so it was only down one at the table.

Thought this was a great example of getting the tricks back that we "lose" by giving up our trump trick!

[rhm]

lmilne, on 2015-April-03, 22:00, said:

Ruffing and giving up your trump trick by playing ♦Ace, Queen is indeed the correct defence on the hand.

Full hand here: NSWBA

Declarer has misplayed the hand - all fine up to now except that they needed to ruff the heart with the ♦ 9 or 7 to get out for one down! Any other card is down two.

Partner has ♣KQ as well as the beautiful ♣7 so down 2 is routine after ruffing and returning the Ace, Queen of diamonds. Partner didn't get the hand right (cashed the other top club when the Jack was played around) so it was only down one at the table.

Thought this was a great example of getting the tricks back that we "lose" by giving up our trump trick!

The point is not that declarer should have ruffed the ♥A with the ♦9 or 7, which is a difficult play (in fact rather double dummy), but that he should have used his heart entries in hand for 2 club ruffs before playing the ♥A.
In the actual diagram exchange the ♣Q for a small club between declarer and East and now declarer's play is okay and the "correct defense" allows declarer to make.

Rainer Herrmann