[Winstonm]

Scoring: IMP

1♣-1♥
1NT-3NT

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After this simple auction, West leads a fifth best 3 of diamonds to East's King and your Ace. What line do you take for 9 tricks?

[whereagles]

Not going to be easy without the clubs. I think I'll try and lead a heart to the queen. Who knows, maybe it holds and I get an extra entry. If not, maybe LHO puts the king and, if hearts break, I accumulate a few chances.

[mikeh]

I play the ♥A and another.

I think I need too much luck to bring this home without some good news in ♥. I play the A first because the K may drop (unlikely but it has happened before in similar circumstances) and because I do not want to complicate the position in the suit. I suspect I am down if RHO wins this trick, but, then, I was almost certainly down no matter what I played. It is too much to hope for (as an example) 109 tight of ♠ on my right or 5♣ tricks.

If LHO wins the ♥K, and plays a low ♦, preserving communications, I can test the ♥ (note the difficulty I have if I have not cashed the ♥A first). If they run, then I cash them, and decide in the endgame how to play the blacks, probably hooking the ♣Q, but possibly coming to the ♣A and hooking the ♠

If the ♥ do not run, then I am going to need a ♣miracle so I would play a low ♣ to the 10.

If LHO wins the ♥K and clears ♦, I can afford to run the ♠Q, adding the ♠ suit to my possible source of tricks. The possible lines are numerous so I will not detail them.

If RHO wins the ♥K, I am almost certainly down

[pclayton]

Echo what Mike says.

I would add that playing hearts first gives us some extra chances even when hearts are 4-2 and RHO has the K♠ and the K - 4th of clubs.

[Free]

Doesn't matter much if you want to take finesses in what order you want to do it. If you lose one, LHO plays small ♦ to keep the communication, so either way you'll need some good positioning in all suits. ♥A followed by ♥ to the Q gives imo the best chances at the moment.