[cherdano]

This is kind of in reply to an article by Victor Mollo in an old bridge world:

Scoring: IMP

1N (12-14) 2C 2S 4S

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Partner leads ♦A, cashes the king, and plays a 3rd round (declarer following). Declarer thinks for a moment, runs the ♥Q to partners king. Any thoughts? What is declarer doing?

[ralph23]

He's wondering who the hell has the Queen of trumps, mainly.

Partner only has room for one more HCP at most in his hand, and it doesn't matter anyway... ... if it's the club Jack, it's going to drop, and if it's the trump Jack, declarer's going down.

So assume declarer has the Jack of ♠ and partner is out of high cards.

Try to look like a man who doesn't have the Queen...

[pclayton]

Seems we can give declarer a losing option by playing the ♠10 if he leads toward his hand.

[cnszsun]

Yes, i remembered this hand, it's in Victor Mollo's book 'The Complete Bridge Player'.
Declarer must have ♠J, otherwise he will choose a different line. For example, cash ♠A,K, 4♣s, then exit with 3rd ♠, try to throw west in.
Declarer try ♥ before ♠ because he wants to know if he can play safe in trumps.
When he at last play a small trump from dummy, you have to play ♠10 to give him a losing option.

[cherdano]

Nonsense deleted.