Posted 2006-October-02, 05:47
I'm not going to duck the spade, because that's a fast loser I can't afford as they may switch to hearts and I go off in a making contract.
I seem to have to find 6 tricks from the minors, and as whereagles says I don't have the entries to play clubs through East (much as I'd like to).
However, I'm going to start by winning the SK and playing a diamond to the 10. If this actually holds (not very likely, of course) then I have some other options depending on whether West may have ducked from the King or not.
If the D10 loses to the King or Jack and West continues spades, then
I'm going to duck the second spade and (if they are 4-3) duck a heart next. There's no genuine position that I can see but the better count I get on the hand, the better the chance of picking up clubs. We aren't told the auction, but if East doesn't know our distribution he might go wrong with, say, Jx KJx Kxxx Qxxx and discard a club when he shouldn't.
Also, I may discover that LHO has 5 spades, 2+ hearts, 3+ diamonds in which case it's probably better to play him for Qx in clubs than Qxx.