Tiny detail which you got but didn’t talk about: when south plays trumps, he must play the ace and then lead the 6. If east shows out, south takes the losing finesse, but still has the 9 in dummy as an entry to take the (hopefully successful) finesse against east’s hoped for Q.

Hi Bobby, David,

There is an extra reason why David’s suggestion of playing East for the (D)Q is sensible if West has HQxx. When South leads the CQ, West may fear a discard on the CK if south has CQJ or even singleton Q. He might well try a diamond shift from Q10xx or similar, although a little more thought (and attention to east’s spot card) could show that this might not be effective. West’s failure to do this (or even think about it) certainly suggests he has the DA and doesn’t want to open up the suit.

Regards,

Iain

Re: “Bid…” If South’s RHO had passed, what is the best way to show this type hand?? Perhaps 3H, but a cue bid could work also.

Bruce

Hi David,

Great catch, and should have been mentioned, but sometimes and seeing the EW cards as they are, carelessness, a deadly commodity while attempting to play against top-level opponents, tends, too often, to make its presence felt.

Perhaps the fact that if West would show out on the first round of hearts (on the bidding and play up to then a live possibility) instead, then the nine of hearts must then be led next, might keep the declarer alert.

Hi Iain,

Your comment is of course relevant, although as you say East should give his partner a count signal in clubs which would clarify the defense. Also, with either a singleton Q of clubs or the QJ doubleton, the declarer not starting that suit earlier, probably at trick 2 is almost a sure indication that neither of those holdings does he have.

BTW and please excuse the digression, complete with a jig, it could be a useful declarer play tool at times when holding as declarer a simple AKx in hand and QJx in dummy or some other similar holdings to lead the king from hand early and then be relatively assured that the opponents, depending on their count signals, will give an accurate count to each other, both of them expecting, with such a declarer’s play, that the other one holds the ace. “McGinn is in bed and McCanley doesn’t know it, McCanleys in bed and McGinn doesn’t know it, they both are in bed, the very same bed, and neither one knows that the other is dead”.

Hi Bruce,

Assuming you are talking about the BWTA hand and if it goes 1D by LHO Dbl. by partner Pass by RHO, then, although far from perfect, while not possessing a 4 card major I would either bid 1NT, which is an underbid or 2 diamonds first and then over a major suit response bid 2NT (NF) denying holding 4 in whatever suit partner bid, but at the same time (or almost) getting across the strength of the hand, but, of course not having a diamond stop for sure. Sometimes we need to improvise and merely hope for something good to happen while, at least, to suggest to partner the hand type (balanced) he holds. I would not bid 3 hearts, holding only 3 of them.

A difficult choice, for sure!

Hi Bobby,

Thanks for the comment, and the worthwhile possibility of extracting info from honest opponents or at least finding out which (if either) always tends to signal if holding an even number. At pairs this may be of limited use but, in a long teams match, this could be a useful edge.

Iain

And to complete this discussion, is this the same Marquis of Montrose who oppressed Rob Roy? Hope you both are well.

Hi Iain and Bill,

Only discussing deceptive, but legal, methods of receiving sometimes necessary information when the opponents are only thinking of helping each other, not their opponents.

Thanks Bill, for your brief reference of discussing UK history.