[Echognome]

Scoring: IMP

P - (1♣) - 1♠ - (Dbl)
2♠ - (3♥) - 4♠ - All Pass

---

Opening lead: ♥T

If you duck, lefty will switch to a small club.

If you cover, righty wins the K and switches to a small club.

Edit: Sorry I screwed up the auction. I fixed it now.

[655321]

All I can think of is to play for a doubleton ♠10 and the ♦K onside, with the opening bidder.

So, win ♣A immediately, play ♠Q, then ♠J (cannot play ♠A first, or King third can duck, denying you an entry to the board).

[rogerclee]

So if I cover, I'm pretty sure that RHO has the AK of hearts, since I think T from AT9-something is a little bit weird.

Then RHO switches to a small club, which means his holding is probably something like KJ. Also, given RHO's limited HCP, I'd say he is likely to be 6-4 (at least).

Anyway, I think LHO is a favorite to have both outstanding kings, so I don't like my chances here. The problem here is that I think LHO is x5y3, which is bad news for me.

Anyway, I'll play the spade A. If the T drops on the right, I feel great, since LHO is probably Kxxx T9xxx K Qxx and I'm making. If LHO has 3 spades and I can get to dummy with the 9, I think I'll have little choice but to play RHO for the diamond K, which I doubt is going to work. If RHO has the spade K, I'll have to try to drop W's stiff diamond K.

[655321]

rogerclee, on Jan 14 2008, 04:33 AM, said:

Also, given RHO's limited HCP, I'd say he is likely to be 6-4 (at least).

Roger, I notice the auction has been edited now, but at the time we posted our lines, East bid 4♥.
I agree with you, so my line (on the original auction) was bad, needing East to hold Tx, AKxx, Kx, KJxxx, an extremely unlikely 4♥ call.

[Fluffy]

I think this is hopeless at double dummy, maybe it is right to just avoid many down by playing from the top.

for me cover, duck the club, then ♦A+♦.

[jchiu]

I've never heard of the word finesse before, could you elaborate 655321?

[Echognome]

I simply went after trumps and then found the singleton K of diamonds.

I was very surprised that diamonds weren't 3-0 after the negative double. I cannot possibly see finessing in diamonds anyway.