Middle Game Hand

To review, the opps are playing 3C at matchpoints, partner leads the king of hearts, and this is the situation with you sitting behind dummy.
AKx
AJx
Q10xxx
xx
          Qxxx
          xxxx
          K9xx
          K

Partner could have led from Kx and want to know if you have the queen. That is unlikely. But you could signal that you do not like hearts (small heart). Or, you could show your diamond honor (small heart) or that you want spades led (high heart).

But this is supposed to be a middle game problem. What is going to happen? Declarer is probably going to make an effort to draw trumps. Perhaps your king will win, but declarer probably has the ace. Perhaps partner has a trump trick; perhaps he does not. Then, when declarer has won whatever trumps he is going to win, declarer is probably going to lead a heart towards the jack of hearts. If declarer has a heart. That costs declarer nothing -- the defense always has a heart trick, and leading towards the jack makes the jack good.

Partner is going to win the queen of hearts. And they partner is going to wonder what to do. If declarer has only two hearts, then declarer gets a pitch on the jack of hearts. You cannot stop declarer from pitching a losing spade, but you can stop declarer from pitching a diamond. So perhaps your partner should attack diamonds.

However, if declarer has three hearts, there is no pitch on the jack of hearts. In this case, partner does not have to lead diamonds. Instead, a passive defense is indicated.

So, to solve partner's middle game problem, you should show your heart distribution. Again, it is unlikely that your partner led from Kx, so partner does not care about attitude because he knows you have nothing relelevant in hearts. Suit preference is also irrelevant. If declarer tries to set up diamond tricks, you are short a tempo to attack spades. (Anyway, if the diamonds are established, partner will want to know if it is safe to cash the queen of hearts, so partner will want a count on the hearts.)

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