[pclayton]

You arrive in 6♥.

---

Opening lead is the ♦K; plan the play (opps are silent during the bidding).

[HeartA]

Win DA (pitch C in hand) and finesse S at trick 2.

If SQ lost to SK. Any side suit back would eliminate losers in side suits (Assuming LHO led K from KQ). I will try to get the distribution of side suits and then decide how to play H.

If SQ covered by SK, I win with SA (or better yet, SQ wins) and HK to dummy and finesse with HJ (unless HQ appears). If it losses to HQ, he is end-played. ...

[Winstonm]

Low diamond ruffed. Ace of hearts and heart to king. If the hearts 3/1, I need a lot of luck and some good guessing - I take the spade pitch on the diamond ace and run the spade Q. If the hearts are 2/2, I lead the spade Q from dummy. If covered, I win, cross to the the club Ace, and lead another spade, covering whatever card RHO plays.

[mikeh]

Ruff the ♦ with a middle spot. Play trump from the top: low to the K and back to the Ace.

If we have a trump loser, exit now: if LHO wins, he must eliminate one black guess for us. If RHO wins, he may be endplayed: we are down if he lacks the ♠K and exits a ♠. I had thought of hooking the trump if RHO follows low the second time, which would endplay LHO if he had Qx trump... we'd only have one black suit guess (likely the ♠ hook) but I don't think it is right to give up the percentage play in the trump suit.

If the trumps behave, finish drawing trump (if the Q was stiff) and lead a low ♠ to the Q. If the K is in LHO, we claim (well, we choose a ♣ hook or minor squeeze for the overtrick)

If the K is in RHO, we have choices after the forced ♠ return. I would cash the 3rd ♠, pitching a ♣. If the 10 appears, claim. If not, the line I take now depends on what I know of the shape. If trump were 2-2 and LHO is short in ♠, ruff the last ♠ high, cross in trump and cash the last trump, playing LHO for 3+♣ and the KQ♦... we don't care where the ♣Q is, it will be dropping if the ♦J is not good.

If trump are 3-1, we lack the flexibility to ruff the ♠ and return in trump, and our line depends on how many ♠ LHO had. We may still decide to play a minor squeeze on him (and would if he were short in ♠)

Or we may decide to play RHO to be squeezed in the blacks: after the 3rd ♠, cross in trump, cash the ♦A and ruff the ♦J. Cross to the high ♣ and lead the last trump...pitching the ♠9 if it is not good.

I am running out of space and time to cater to all the permutations if the ♥Q is stiff, since we lose flexibility.

[pclayton]

I played like Senshu but I like Mike's line better. I think it makes sense to try trump first; its not like there's a foolproof safety play in trump if the black suits behave anyway.

The spade king was off, but hearts were 2-2, so most lines worked. Playing the hand like its from the newspaper (heart to K, hook heart into LHO) doesn't work. There's just too much to do.