Problem # 239

                                              From                   5th November, 2005, Board 14

                                              Theme                Helping Partner

                                              Difficulty            * * * *

                                              Dlr East              None Vul

NOTE: The hand below is slightly changed from the one that was actually played in the Wednesday Game, in order to make the problem more clear-cut.

North West      Dummy           South	♠ AQT ♥ A ♦ Q62 ♣ KQT873
♠ J8653 ♥ 952 ♦ K8 ♣ A42
West    North   East     South                          1♣       Pass 1♥        Pass    3♣       Pass 3NT     All Pass

Playing 4^th best leads, Partner starts with the 4♦, low from Dummy, and your King wins the trick, with Declarer playing the Five.  Partner seems to have the A♦ and may have started with 4 or 5 Diamonds.  The question to be answered is “Do you continue Diamonds, or do you shift to a Heart?”

SOLUTION

Once Declarer has knocked out your A♣ he has at least 9 tricks (3 Spades, a Heart, and 5 Clubs).  Declarer may well have the K♥, maybe the Q♥ also, taking him up to 10 or 11.  Does that mean that you should send back a Diamond at Trick Two?  Absolutely not!  The danger is that Partner (who surely has no outside entries) will duck the second Diamond, hoping that you will have a 3^rd Diamond to lead when you get in with the A♣.  That would be the right play on some layouts but not this time. 

Partner doesn’t know you started with only two Diamonds, but you do!  The way to stop Partner from going wrong is to shift to a Heart at Trick 2, more precisely, shift to the 9♥, indicating no high cards in the suit.  This has two ways to win: (a) Partner might conceivably have the K♥ (or, in your wildest dreams, even KJ♥), allowing the defense to get to 4 or 5 tricks before Declarer gets to 10 or 9; (b) more likely, though, shifting to a Heart will make sure that Partner does not go wrong by ducking the second round of Diamonds.

Well done if you anticipated Partner’s problem and made it impossible for her to go wrong.