[Echognome]

Scoring: IMP

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Auction:
P - 1♣(1) - Dbl(2) - 1♥(3)
2♦ - Relays.. - 6♥ - All Pass

(1) Strong
(2) Diamonds or the majors
(3) Positive response, 4+hearts, unbalanced hand

You have a fine auction to the top spot of 6♥ (do you agree?).

West leads a middling club.

Plan the play.

Note: on the actual hand, EW knew declarer's exact distribution, but dummy was unknown before the lead. None of the x's are relevant (e.g. no x's in hearts above the 7).

[Gerben42]

I really like my chances in this contract. I also like that the opponents didn't manage to compete until 5♦ or so. This suggests that there are not too many bad breaks abound.

I take the ♣, ruff a ♦ and lead a ♥ to the Q and K, letting the person with the possible singleton ♣ win the trick (the lead wasn't a singleton if West has ANY clue about his convention).

If it wins my problem is to guard against 4 - 1 breaks in both ♣ and ♥. For this I ruff the other ♦, repeat the finesse, and play ♣K and ♣ ruff, ♥ to Ace and run the ♣.

If the finesse loses their best shot is a ♠, disrupting communications. Now our best shot is to find the ♣ 3 - 2, or 4 - 1 with the length with the long trumps.

[whereagles]

I'm in the mood of making wierd moves. Take the ace and lead the ♥Q. The idea is to dislodge the heart king as soon as possible.

[temp3600]

If hearts were 4-1 or worse, I think West would have led a diamond, to start a tap (and especially so if he could see clubs were breaking poorly).
The club lead looks like it prepares a ruff for East. But that means West expects to get in somehow. West knows he can't get in in diamonds (South is void) nor in spades (he has the Q at most), so I would place West with Kx(x) in hearts, and Jxxx in clubs.

After taking the ♣A, I would start with a diamond ruff, and a trump to the Q. If the finesse wins, I cash the ♥A.
If the finesse loses, I take the return, pull trumps and come back to my hand (either in spades or with the ♥10, depending on their return). Now I have to setup the clubs, and play my remaining small club to the 10.

Gerben42 : in your line, in the case where the ♥Q wins the first trump finesse, I don't think you have enough trumps in hand to do everything.

[Echognome]

Hearts were 4-1 onside and clubs were 4-1 offside.

I played top club, ruff a diamond. Heart hook. Diamond ruff (a mistake!), ♥T holding with RHO showing out. I ended up down one.

I think one can make by ruffing one diamond and leading a second club up (LHO ruffing thin air if he ruffs). Then I can ruff a club and use the 2nd spade winner for the losing diamond.

Spades split 3-2, so it turns out that both the spade slam and club slam make. Ouch!

[Gerben42]

I think it's kind of usual that 4 - 4 fits like this don't suffice when they are 4 - 1... It's not clear how to find this out in the bidding, though!