[y66]

Scoring: MP

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You're playing 4H after RHO opens (1D) then 1H (X) 2D : (3C) 4H all pass.

CT, jack, ace, 8. C2, king, 7, 3.

Plan the play.

[fromageGB]

Ruff the diamond, finesse hearts, lead spades from dummy twice if needed. Go off if ♠A on the left and ♥K on the right, but I expect W to have both of them.

[CSGibson]

fromageGB, on Jun 7 2008, 08:12 AM, said:

Ruff the diamond, finesse hearts, lead spades from dummy twice if needed.  Go off if ♠A on the left and ♥K on the right, but I expect W to have both of them.

Really? I expect RHO to be precisely 2-1-5-5 without the ace of spades, from the bidding and play thus far. 2-1-5-5 (or 2-0-6-5) should be obvious: the lead was a doubleton, giving RHO 5, LHO made a negative double, giving RHO 2 spades, and since RHO opened a diamond, he has at least 5 of those (with 2-2-4-5 he would have been right to open a club and rebid 1N).

The reason I expect LHO to have the ace of spades is that RHO was trying to give LHO a ruff in clubs, and in doing so used the 2 of clubs as suit preference, asking for a diamond return. If RHO had the ace of spades, he would ask for a spade return, then a diamond return later.

Now you have to decide whether RHO opened the bidding with:

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or with something like this:

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All in all I think it's a better move to play Ace and another diamond to see if RHO covers the jack with the queen before making a decision about whether to try to drop the king offsides.

If I had to guess right now I play for a rabbi king. Give LHO an ace and a king, and we might be doubled or in 5 diamonds. Give RHO a void and he probably pushes to 5 diamonds.

Edited to change all east and west to RHO and LHO, in response to Vilgan's comments below.

[Vilgan]

CSGibson, on Jun 7 2008, 10:37 AM, said:

Really?  I expect W to be precisely 2-1-5-5 without the ace of spades, from the bidding and play thus far.

I think you have W and E confused. E was the one who dealt and opened a diamond and is likely ??55.

Seems like you are making good inferences, just got E/W flip flopped.

[y66]

Scoring: MP

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Not sure what the right line is but the key to the hand, imo, is to work out the shape using CSGib's thought process or similar.

If you played to drop the HK you got a top on this board.

I didn't play this hand live. The unit posts the hands in PBN format so I played it this morning using Jack. At trick 3, I tried leading SK. Jack (West) covered so I decided to play RHO for the HK. Don't know what I'd have done if West had ducked.

[xcurt]

y66, on Jun 7 2008, 07:48 PM, said:

Not sure what the right line is but the key to the hand, imo, is to work out the shape using CSGib's thought process or similar.

If you played to drop the HK you got a top on this board.

I didn't play this hand live. The unit posts the hands in PBN format so I played it this morning using Jack. At trick 3, I tried leading SK. Jack (West) covered so I decided to play RHO for the HK. Don't know what I'd have done if West had ducked.

Your idea was good but there is a flaw. If LHO has Sxxxx and HKx, RHO will win the SA and play a low club. LHO will make the HK anyway.

Also leading the SK from hand means you now have two spade losers where you could have had one if he ace is onside. Playing a diamond up to the ace and a spade to get the same information is a little better, but RHO can go up and play a club to hold you to 4.

[y66]

Leading toward SK from dummy instead of plunking down SK? Good idea! Thanks.

[han]

At IMPs you could just cash the heart ace. If RHO does not have the heart king then the spade king will be onside.

[brianshark]

My first impression is to cash the heart ace. RHO probably has the heart K, and if not then he'll probably have the spade ace and game is fairly cold anyway. Even at MP, the bidding tells me this way seems right.