[FrancesHinden]

Scoring: IMP

1♠ P 2♦ P
2♠ P 4♠ all pass

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2♦ = ostensibly natural, 4+, forcing to 2♠ only (2♣ is probably systemic but you decided not to bid it on 3 low)
2♠ minimum hand, 5 spades (your opening bid only showed 4 spades)

LHO leads the 2 of hearts, 3rd & fifth
What do you play to trick one?
What do you play to trick two?

[Echognome]

I'm pretty sure at the table I would win the ♥K in hand and play a spade to the ace and a spade back towards my hand.

If lefty has lead from Kx Txxxx ??? ??? then I still have hope that the ♦A is onside.

Edit: The only other thing I can think of differently is winning in hand to lead a diamond at trick 2 in case righty has 4 spades and I need to scissors the hand.

[Apollo81]

agree with gnome except for the part about the scissors coup, if RHO has ♠KT9x and the ♦A is onside then we're just cold.

[gnasher]

I win ♥K and run ♠Q.

If ♦A is onside, I'm cold even if I lose two trump tricks. If RHO has ♦A, ♠Kx and five hearts, I'm down whatever I do.

Of the remaining possibilities, I'd like to be able to cope with:
- hearts 5=1
- hearts 1=5
- spades 1=4

Dealing with East's ♠Kxxx is awkward. Suppose that I play ace and another spade, winning the queen as West shows out. If I now play a heart to dummy and another spade, he will win and return a third heart, cutting me off from the heart winner, not to mention the potential diamond winner. I could try to avoid that by leading a low spade from dummy without cashing the ace, but this would lose to lots of 5-1 heart breaks.

Regarding avoiding a heart ruff:
- Running ♠Q loses when RHO has ♠Kxx and five hearts.
- Ace and another spade loses when RHO has ♠xxx and a singleton heart, or ♠xx and five hearts.
- Leading a diamond to the king, followed by ace and another spade loses when RHO has ♠Kxx and five hearts, or ♠xxx and a singleton heart.

If LHO had xx x in the majors, we might have heard from him over 1S, so running ♠Q seems best.

[FrancesHinden]

I think this is a tricky hand, because you don't know which way hearts are 5-1 (if they are 5-1 at all).

One point that nobody has mentioned is the point I noticed as East when I was defending the hand. I was looking at

♠ 98
♥ 10xxxx
♦ AQJx
♣ xx

Declarer's chosen line was to win the king of hearts in hand and play ace and another spade; my partner won and taking notice of my suit pref signal in trumps played a diamond to my ace for a heart ruff.

But if you are going to play ace and another spade I really think winning with the King of hearts is wrong. From my point of view as East, partner could have led from a 3-card heart holding, but when declarer didn't cross in trumps and take discards on the AQ of hearts I knew partner's lead was a singleton.

So I think you should win with the Jack which might confuse RHO.

Anyway, the running-the-SJ-line works, ace and another spade goes off. I have a sneaky feeling and that ace and anotehr is better; when you say ace-and-another loses when RHO has xx and five hearts, that's only true if she has the ace of diamonds as well.

[gnasher]

FrancesHinden, on May 21 2008, 11:08 AM, said:

I have a sneaky feeling and that ace and anotehr is better; when you say ace-and-another loses when RHO has xx and five hearts, that's only true if she has the ace of diamonds as well.

If ♦A is onside, all reasonable lines work against all likely layouts.

For example, when I said that running ♠Q loses when RHO has ♠Kxx and five hearts, that applies only if ♦A is offside. With ♦A onside, I have two discards for my two clubs, so I just lose ♦A, ♠K and a ruff.