Suit Preference When Returning Partner's Lead in NT

In 2nd seat, all red, You hold:
T865
K9
AQT4
986



Auction:
1C (strong) - P - 1D (0-7) - P;
P - 1S - 2H (5-7, 5+H) - P;
2NT - P - P - P
Opening lead: D4



Dummy:
Q2
QJ753
532
JT5



Partner wins K and returns 9, covered with the J. You cash the Q and T. Dummy sheds a club. Partner follows with 8 and 6. Declarer pitches S7 and HT. Your lead to trick 5. What are your thoughts? For the 2NT rebid, we can expect declarer to have 16-17 (maybe 18) hcp, leaving partner with 4-6 in the remaining three suits.


Partner is up to something here by not returning fourth best. Normally the only reason for not returning 4th best is if he needs to remain on lead for a finesse through declarer or to unblock, and neither is the case with declarer known to have a doubleton diamond. So partner must be trying to show some suit preference. Does playing to-down in diamonds suggest a spade or a heart? I think it suggests hearts because spade tricks are clearly not going away and hearts aren't running. If declarer has AKJ and AK in the black suits, he has 9 tricks as soon as he gains the lead. If declarer has the heart ace, it's now stiff so it can't hurt to lead a low heart. The HT discard is very telling. It kind of gives away the position. Either he had blanked the A and is banking on a (winning) black suit finesse instead of a heart finesse to make his contract, probably with an overtrick or he just has a stiff T and has 9 black suit winners.




But what if this guy is being a hand hog and actually has three hearts and was just trying to entice you into leading from the K with a hand like AKJxx, ATx, Jx, Axx instead of attacking his vulnerable club suit? with that hand, a heart ensures the contract while a club lead could set 2NT. But if that's the case, he can have the good board and we'll chalk it up to a fix.




This play is more difficult if declarer keeps the HT and instead throws a low black card on the fourth diamond. When partner has the heart ace, it's still likely declarer will get 8 tricks if you don't take both hearts now, but he would have to be 5-5 in the blacks for it to matter. How much should we cater to declarer not bidding 3C on a 5-5 hand? I don't know - we would have to know the player's tendencies a little more. Anyway, we are back to the question of what partner's diamond plays suggest about what to do next.  We know that the heart suit isn't a threat But from partner's perspective, declarer could have xxxxx, AK, Jx, AKQx in which case a spade lead is very crucial. I suppose partner could play the 8 at trick to suggest hearts, but three-suited suit preference situations can be confusing. I'm gonna go with: in this context, spades is the suit to avoid so for partner to show a heart preference, he would lead back 4th-top-bottom (6-9-8) and to show a club pref he would lead back 4th-bottom-top (6-8-9), leading back not 4th best in this non-unblocking situation and then showing 4 suggests something else, in this case a spade. If dummy's hearts were better, I'd say hearts would be the unexpected suit and the normal suit pref signal would be between spades and clubs.



As it turned out, declarer's hand was AKJxx, T, Jx, AKQxx and the trick 5 play of a heart would lead to -1, anything else making 3. It didn't make any difference in the matchpoints because the field was either making 4S or going down 2 in 3NT.

Bridge hiatus?

Summer 2015 is approaching and lifestyle changes are coming. It seems about once a year there’s a significant life change, but none too big because I’ve lived and worked in the same place now for 7 years. I haven’t posted a lot on here lately and I still don’t have any bridge hands to write about but they will come as I’m probably going to be playing more bridge again. My life has been all over the place. I’ve been involved in so many things outside of work, and trying to schedule time for everything has been crazy: bridge, Bob, other Atlanta friends, Alexandra, my parents, my dog, directing bridge club games, the D7 News, tournament flyers, freelance writing, ALTA tennis, USTA tennis, T2 tennis, trying to find a woman for me, and trying to understand women. You’d think I would know a lot about women and be able to read their minds pretty well given that I have a lot of female friends I talk to on a regular basis, but they still baffle me and drive me crazy, but that’s for a different blog. I think I’m going to resurrect my old blog that used to be mostly about travel, but it’ll have more of a male-female relationship theme to it.

Back to bridge. I played a lot of bridge in late Feb through mid-March with, I think, tournaments in 5 out of 6 weekends but have not been to a tournament in the last 8 weeks, skipping Gatlinburg for the first time in probably a decade. This may well be the longest I've gone without a bridge tournament since I was serious with Hillery in 2008. Weekend getaways to sectionals no longer appeal to me as something to do to keep from being lonely. Regionals have even lost some their luster except when they’re either financially beneficial or with someone I really like in a place I like.

Summer typically has more tournaments that I like going to, but all I have scheduled is three days in Las Vegas in June, and nine days in Chicago for the NABC in August (half with Cristal and half with Sean). Memorial Day weekend is now unexpectedly open. Last year is the first time I did not attend a Memorial Day regional in a long time because I was at my good friend Brian’s wedding in Lexington, and I didn’t miss bridge that weekend at all. I thoroughly enjoyed that trip and wedding. I had planned on a more traditional relaxing beach/water park vacation for Memorial Day, but various circumstances have made those plans dissolve. It bothers me slightly to have a holiday weekend right around the corner with no real plans. Then again I’m often slightly bothered by things that probably shouldn't bother me. Anyway, I'm open to playing somewhere over Memorial Day, playing in Greenville June 12-14, in Jacksonville over July 4th, or Pasadena or Nashville or Reston July 10-12 if there's a good offer. Suggestions?