[nige1]

Arguably, this was my worst effort
Matchpoints, Acol, Partner leads ♣2 ♣8 ♣J ♣A. Declarer leads ♠3 ♠6 ♠K, ♠A. Now what?

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[Cyberyeti]

9♦ partner shouldn't be missing ♦A at this vul, I expect him to tell me what to play after I get my ruff by the card he plays next.

[HardVector]

I'm kind of inclined to take the A♥ here. It's safe in that partner should not have 4 hearts and when I play my diamond and get a ruff, partner will have more info to guide me. I'm not sure, though. When I first saw this, the diamond on trick 3 looked so automatic, it would depend upon who I was playing with, I guess. How likely is partner to have AQxxxxxx? How good are the opps? Holding 5 spades and 4 hearts will they bid 4d? Maybe they are 6/4 majors? That's why I'm leaning to the heart. I don't think it will cost and could gain on a couple holdings.

[Cyberyeti]

HardVector, on 2019-April-28, 17:49, said:

I'm kind of inclined to take the A♥ here. It's safe in that partner should not have 4 hearts and when I play my diamond and get a ruff, partner will have more info to guide me. I'm not sure, though. When I first saw this, the diamond on trick 3 looked so automatic, it would depend upon who I was playing with, I guess. How likely is partner to have AQxxxxxx? How good are the opps? Holding 5 spades and 4 hearts will they bid 4d? Maybe they are 6/4 majors? That's why I'm leaning to the heart. I don't think it will cost and could gain on a couple holdings.

It costs where partner has 8 diamonds to the ace and a stiff heart and you can't read the heart as stiff. Not cashing the heart loses when partner has 8 diamonds and no hearts.

[nige1]

I won the ♠ and returned a ♣ for a well deserved zero matchpoints.
Everybody else got this right, returning a ♦ to set the contract with a ruff

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[mikeh]

3D was nuts. No spots, short suit, vulnerable against not.

However, the gamble was winning until South lost his mind. There was virtually zero chance that partner (a) had a club void and (b) lacked the diamond Ace. Even if he had 8 diamonds, and a stiff club, he isn't void in hearts, so after winning the diamond Ace, he has no hope but to play a heart, and now we have no hope but to play a club.

[gszes]

I think the heart A followed by the dia 9 sends the best message about needing a dia return. Returning the 9 immediately might seem like doing the obvious but what if that 9 is not so easy to read as a singleton (I know I have never had an opp bid 3d with AQxxxx:)). If p decides we need the heart A they might assume a heart switch is needed to set the contract instead of a dia. Leading the heart ace eliminates that line of thought.