[mike777]

Scoring: IMP

(2H)=2S=P=4S
ALL PASS

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I found this hand interesting.
Opening lead is ten of hearts.

Trick one =Th...6....8...3
Trick two =9h...K....A...5
Trick three=Qh..9s...6c..7h

What is your plan?

[inquiry]

Can we assume 2♥ was a weak two?

My plan is to get a count on the hand. If EAST has ♠K and ♥AQJ, he is not likely to have the ♦Q. Also, it seems a little unlikely WEST has ♣KQJ (I guess he could however) also making it highly unlikely EAST has both ♠K and ♦Q.

Thus I will go exploring, low spade towards dummy. If east wins, I fully expect the ♦ finessee to win. Lets say,for the sake of argument the spade wins in dummy, now I play low club from the dummy. Did EAST pop up with something useful? I ruff the club, play spade ACE and a spade.

WEST will have to lead a minor, I ruff if a club, and if a diamond, I win in dummy, cash the club ace (if not a club back, discarding the diamond ten) and ruff a club.

At this point, I hope to have some kind of count on EAST's hand both in terms of HCP (I will have seen three clubs, at least from his hand so if he had any club honors they are likely to have shown.

So I should have count on hand, and fairly accurate count on EAST hcp. I will use this information to decide how to play the hand. One possibility is a showup squeeze if EAST is 2-6-2-3, as WEST will not be able to keep the club quard and the Qx of diamonds, giving me a chance to drop the diamond Qx offside.

[mike777]

If you lead a low spade at trick 4 then west wins the K and returns a spade at trick 5, all follow suit. If you play a low club from dummy at trick 6, east plays the five of clubs.

Yes this is a count, visual the hand problem more than anything which is why I enjoyed it.

[ArcLight]

If you lead a spade and everyone follows 2 rounds you know:

W E
♠2 2
♥2 6
♦ ?
♣ ?

Win 2nd spade in dummy.
Play ♣ Ace and ruff a club.
Back to dummy with ♦J (tempting a cover) to Ace.
Ruff 2nd Club.

This gives us a partial count on the Clubs, or possibly a full count.
IF East shows out then Clubs are 7=2, meaning Dimes are 2-2.

Assume Clubs are 4=3 or 3=4
What else do we know? Any Club honors appear from East?

Would East open 1♥ with?
♠xx
♥AQJxxx
♦Qx
♣Qx


Also, West might have lead ♣K from KQJ, but not from a broken sequence.

Assuming no honors appear from East and Clubs are 4/3 or 3/4, then play West for the ♦Q. Run the 10, then finesse the 9.

One other point, run some spades first, in case teh opps discard poorly.

[hatchett]

When LHO has KQJ of clubs and the diamond Q or any six card club suit and the diamond Q he cannot hold the position on the run of the spades.

The problem distributions are when

(i) LHO five clubs to two top honors and the diamond Q. On the spades he will pitch all his clubs and one diamond

(ii) LHO has six clubs and no diamond Q. He will pitch all but one but one club and one diamond, which will equate to the same discards as in (i) above!

There might be some clues for instance if RHO starts with Kxx club the position should be revealed. If he starts with Qxx/Jxx we will need to know if he would open 1H in his style with xx AQJxxx x QJxx

I'm not sure that I can tell for sure between (i) and (ii)