4/26 BBO

Saw a basic defensive theme in a hand today. But first, the bidding problem.

imps r/w you have xx KTx A987 xxxx, partner deals. It goes

1D - 3H - p - p
x - p - ?

I just bid 4D here, it's probably sane but I never know. Anyway it continues

1D - 3H - p - p
x - p - 4D - 4H
x

So my LHO has decided to be crazy and we're going to hit 4H. I lead a big spade and we see

-----------QJT98x
-----------8x
-----------Tx
-----------JTx
xx
KTx
A987
xxxx

Partner cashes the first two spades, and they both hold. There is a trump promotion in the works, but the important defensive theme here is that we need to cash our side winners before going for the promo. If partner leads a third spade now, declarer can pitch a side suit instead of weakening his trump holding.

Partner leads the DQ, K, A, small. You return a small diamond to partner's jack. Now partner cashes the top two clubs (declarer following with Qx) and leads a spade. So declarer turned out to be 2722.

Declarer ruffs with the HJ and you should pitch. This is the other defensive theme, if you refuse this overruff you come to two trump tricks instead of one.

So I pitched a club, and declarer leads a small heart out of hand. I put in the ten, which crashed partner's ace. After all that hard work, sigh...

I wasn't counting declarer's hand. He'd shown up with the DK, CQ, and some heart holding with the jack. If he had AJxxxxx then my play doesn't matter. I was afraid of AQJ9xxx, in which case he would sneak a heart by me if I ducked this trick. But that would give declarer a 12 count, which most people would probably overcall 1H.

I compressed 1400 into 1100. Oh well, I'll take it.