Duck for dinner

The opponents’ unorthodox bidding creating an interesting situation at today’s club game.  Both the defense and the declarer missed opportunities.

I will show the whole hand and auction first:

Dealer: 14-E Vul: None	North ♠ A93 ♥ AKT842 ♦ A ♣ T62
West ♠ 752 ♥ Q973 ♦ KQT8 ♣ J5		East ♠ K8 ♥ J65 ♦ 42 ♣ KQ9843
	South ♠ QJT64 ♥ — ♦ J97653 ♣ A7

I was East.  What do you lead with my hand?

A low club would have been best, but I chose the ♣K.  Declarer won the ♣A.

Should partner unblock the ♣J?  If I held KQT9 of clubs, I would have led the Q to conventionally ask for the unblock of the J.  But, on the other hand, from KQT-sixth, I might have led the ♣K.  Seems to me that partner’s play is a tough one and since unblocking seems more normal with a hand that might expect to later gain the lead, that is what he did.

Trick 1 is the time for thinking about the hand as a whole.  Even if declarer wants to play lickety-split, I am a firm believer that the defense should take its time.  As third hand, I will always pause if declarer has not (and say “I am thinking about the hand as a whole”).  And if I am opening leader and neither partner nor declarer has paused, I will think about the hand for a moment before turning over my card to consent to play of Trick 2.

On this hand, I was ready for Trick 2 duck of the lead of the ♠Q from dummy and played small in normal tempo.  (Yes, I can see that winning the ♠K will work if I am up to leading a small diamond on the next trick, but I was not about to find that switch, I confess.)

With dummy’s only entry knocked out at Trick 1, declarer probably needs five spade tricks for his contract to add to his four top tricks on the side.  Four spade tricks would suffice if my hand sets up his ♣T, but there is no assurance that we will be so giving.  Declarer needs an opponent to have been dealt Kx of spades to win five spade tricks; Kxx will not produce five tricks for declarer because the suit will soon be blocked.  Ergo, declarer should play a second spade to his ace.  He would be pleased with the result of that play.  However, declarer might have been hoping for the development of some sort of end position to produce an extra trick in one of the side suits — and he surely did not want partner on lead to a club through his ten — so declarer chose to pass the ♠J next.  I won this with my king and, with declarer limited to only three spade tricks on the play to date, then chose to next set up my clubs even at the cost of developing an extra club trick for declarer.  The ♣Q and a third club followed.  At this stage, all declarer had for tricks were two clubs, two hearts, two spades and a diamond and ended down two tricks.

My teammates bid more normally and reached 4♠ for an 11 IMP favorable swing.