[Phil]

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1. ♠J, A, 2, 3, 2 = standard count (and rarely dishonest)
2. ♦9, 3, Q, K
3. ♣K, A, 3, 4

Play on

[zhoraster]

Are you sure the opening bid was 1♠? Just checking.

Anyway, with spades left I guess W would have continued them. So I assume J♠ was singleton. So I draw all trumps, discarding two spades and two hearts, take AK of spades and now lead a club towards dummy.

If E has a long queen in hearts, he is squeezed in spades and hearts. Otherwise W was squeezed in clubs and hearts before this.

I found no way to squeeze both opponents in spades (but I have to admit I didn't think a lot). So I'll go down if W has 3 spades (but in this case I fail to understand why not continue them).

[GrahamJson]

Presumably west has seven clubs and shifted to the king in the hope that east would ruff the ace. I’m also guessing that west has a singleton diamond and that the winning line is to finess against the ten. So, I’m guessing west has J109 Qx K KJ10xxxx. He can see the hearts lie well for declarer, hence the desperate shift at trick two.

[Phil]

1♥ opener sorry

[mikeh]

win the club Ace, trump to hand...I am not playing east for 10xxx. I plan to draw trump, pitching a spade, then cash the top spade and cross in clubs to run the trump. As I play my last trump, I am down to x x x 10 and dummy is x AKJ void void. LHO has to hold the club J and hence must reduce to 2 hearts. I pitch the spade, and rho must hold the spade Q and hence reduce to 2 hearts. The Queen now drops.

I am playing LHO for a stiff spade and long clubs and assume that trump are behaving. It is interesting to consider that maybe an expert west would duck with the trump king unless it were stiff but I'm not catering to that. I think the club K switch suggests he isn't up to that anyway...he should switch to a heart imo.

[nullve]

mikeh, on 2018-May-03, 22:09, said:

he should switch to a heart imo.

If West has three small hearts and no spade left, then a club switch to remove an entry to dummy's fifth heart is necessary if declarer started with something like

xx
T
AQJxxxx
JTx.

The ♣K looks like a mistake, though.

[mikeh]

nullve, on 2018-May-04, 00:08, said:

If West has three small hearts and no spade left, then a club switch to remove an entry to dummy's fifth heart is necessary if declarer started with something like

xx
T
AQJxxxx
JTx.

The ♣K looks like a mistake, though.

West knows the spade situation due to the play of trick one, so will not place south with xx in spades

[Phil]

mikeh, on 2018-May-03, 22:09, said:

win the club Ace, trump to hand...I am not playing east for 10xxx. I plan to draw trump, pitching a spade, then cash the top spade and cross in clubs to run the trump. As I play my last trump, I am down to x x x 10 and dummy is x AKJ void void. LHO has to hold the club J and hence must reduce to 2 hearts. I pitch the spade, and rho must hold the spade Q and hence reduce to 2 hearts. The Queen now drops.

I am playing LHO for a stiff spade and long clubs and assume that trump are behaving. It is interesting to consider that maybe an expert west would duck with the trump king unless it were stiff but I'm not catering to that. I think the club K switch suggests he isn't up to that anyway...he should switch to a heart imo.

This is how the hand was played. Its intetesting to me that you dont need the club ruff and you dont need the hearts if your read on spades and the ♣J is right.

LHO was indeed 1336.

Should LHO have ducked the diamond from KTx? This looks foolish when partner has Jx. If he does it in tempo I probably am playing a spade up for a 2nd hook. If he ruffs I have a nasty guess.