[dickiegera]

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Opening lead was 10 of Spades. South won in his hand , played 3 rounds of diamonds with west playing club 10 on 3rd diamond.
Now South plays jack of hearts lossing to Queen in East hand.

I know that N/S are cold for 3NT , however my question is on what club to return and I give the hands and bidding if it might make a diference.

WHICH CLUB DOES EAST RETURN? King or 5 and why?

Thank you

[Nephin Mor]

South stopped in 3♦ and has shown AKQ in the suit together with King♠ and J in Hearts which accounts for 13HCP....holding another ace or KQ he would have gone on. West's overcall places him/her with ♣Honours as he did not overcall with just the King of the suit and nothing outside. Club King is correct to smother South's possible honour in the suit.

[rmnka447]

I'm leading the ♣ K. If you lead ♣ 5, partner knows you hold a ♣ honor, but which one? ♣ K clarifies the situation for partner, so a losing defense option won't likely be chosen. Kelsey covered this in type of play in depth in his short book (OOP) "Improve your Partner's Defence". It's an easy play to miss if you just mechanically lead the suit.