A Tough Defense
With both Vul at IMP’s, playing against strong opponents, you pick up the following hand: 
K Q J 6 5 4 2 
K 8 
K 9 2 
8
You open 1 and your LHO bids 2. Partner passes and RHO bids 3. You try 3 and your LHO bids 3NT. Everyone passes.
Partner leads the 9 and you see the dummy.
| NORTH 7 3 A 6 5 4 A 6 5 3 J 5 3 |
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| EAST K Q J 6 5 4 2 K 8 K 9 2 8 |
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Declarer ducks the first spade, playing the ten. He wins the second spade, partner following. Declarer now plays the A and continues with a small club, partner winning the queen and declarer playing dummy’s jack.
Plan your defense.
UPDATE 1/27/07. We have some very good answers so far. What if declarer has both red queens? Certainly this is possible, maybe even likely, from the bidding. Does considering this possibility affect your defensive plan?
Cute hand. Obviously, whichever red suit partner shifts to, declarer has to rise ace and play clubs. If declarer had 7 of those, you can’t beat it. If declarer had only 6, you are in danger of getting strip-squeezed. You need partner to shift to the red suit where he DOESN’T have the Q, so you can pitch down to stiff K in the other suit.
Not sure how you tell him to do this, but I suspect that if I play my middlest spade here, he will go into the grandfather of all tanks. Eventually, he should be able to figure out you have BOTH K’s and, after another couple of minutes, he should work out to lead from his non-Q suit. But our fine result will be taken away by the slow-play penalty…
December 25, 2006 CraigB
This is a great hand though I don’t agree that West has to lead from the queen he doesn’t have. The way I see it (and it’s pretty late) is this: If West has Q108x of hearts and 10xxx of diamonds and shifts to a low heart, declarer with J9x of hearts and the QJ tight in diamonds has no play. However, if declarer has J10x of hearts and the QJ of diamonds, West has to shift to a diamond.
Also, if declarer has Qx of hearts and J10x of diamonds, a low diamond (or a heart) shift defeats the contract.
January 26, 2007 Eddie Kantar