[iandayre]

You open 1C with AK75, A97, Q98, J95. Partner leaps to 3S, a splinter raise. You end the auction with 3NT and the lead is the SQ

Dummy holds 2, KJ6, AJ52, KT762. RHO follows with the S3. Win or duck? If you duck, LHO continues with the SJ. Then what?

[kuhchung]

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SQ lead, RHO follows 3.

[nige1]

Nothing clever springs to mind. You might win the second ♠, discarding a ♥, and run ♣9.

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[iandayre]

nige1, on 2015-October-14, 16:55, said:

Nothing clever springs to mind. You might win the second ♠, discarding a ♥, and run ♣9.

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That line was chosen by a number of declarers, but was not successful. Perhaps we'll get some other ideas.

[iandayre]

duplicate deleted

[nige1]

iandayre, on 2015-October-14, 21:52, said:

That line was chosen by a number of declarers, but was not successful. Perhaps we'll get some other ideas.

Can anybody suggest another line? Failing that please would Landayre reveal the solution?

[WesleyC]

Although its possible to come up with layouts where its wrong, ducking exactly 1 spade feels right to sever communications if they break 5-3 or 6-2.

Given you are always planning to take 3c 2s 2h and 1D, discarding a diamond on the 2nd spade feels slightly better that a heart and might allow you to test for doubleton Qh on some layouts.

And although starting with the 9c might fail to a singleton Q onside, it picks up AQxx onside which is far more likely.

So overall, I can't find a better line.

[cherdano]

It looks so tempting to win the second spade, and if it looks like spades are 5-3, to play a diamond to ace and a low club off dummy. Unfortunately, I don't think it's right Wins when LHO has ♣A without the Q, but loses when he has ♦K. Crossing in hearts instead of diamonds leaves you vulnerable to a heart continuation, but might be better against defenders who likely wouldn't find that.
(I don't see how RHO could find the play of putting up ♣Q from Qxx on this hand - his partner might have ♣Jx.)

[gszes]

DUCK the 2nd spade--- pitch a dia wait to pitch a heart until the 3rd round of spades

Defense is hard when you hold QJT9x of spades and the J holds a red suit switch looks hugely unappealing and you might be severely tempted to continue with another "safe" spade. Is it really all that tough to duck the 2nd spade once we decide to duck the first one??? We will have the same entry problems if lho does not continue spades but lho does not know that nor where to launch a red suit attack.

Ducking the 2nd spade gives us our best shot to lose only 2s 2c (if lho continues with a 3rd spade) OR 2s 1c and 1 red suit (we will need club Q to work for us) When we win the 3rd spade we can take our first club finesse knowing rho will soon be exhausted of spades if they are 53 OR we will only lose 2s if the suit breaks 44. Winning the 2nd spade loses anytime rho wins the club Q and started with 3 spades (given the play to the first two tricks that looks highly probable). We give the defenders a chance to not defend perfectly by ducking the 2nd spade.

[iandayre]

I ducked the second Spade as well - and believe that was the correct play. I won the third round and led the C9, losing to the Q. Remember, even if E cannot now continue Spades, we have only 8 tricks. But the CQ was singleton! So E, who was 3541 and held both the HQ and DK, had to lead a red suit to concede the 9th trick. The same would happen if E held the C AQ doubleton.

Not sure it matters whether you pitch 1H and 1D or 2D from dummy on the 2nd and 3rd round of Spades. I am sure that winning the second Spade does NOT sever communications when Spades are 5-3 with the A with W and the Q with East.