[Little Kid]

Scoring: XIMP

Pass-(Pass)-1♣ - (X)
1♥ - (Pass)-Pass-(3NT)

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You deal and pass, the auction ends with RHO bidding 3NT. Playing 3/5 leads and udca + o/e discards, you lead a small ♦ and the defence proceeds as follows:
T1: ♦3-♦2-♦J-♦A
T2: ♣A-♠2-♣2-♣7
T3: ♣Q-♥4-♣4-♣K
T4: ♦8-♦K-♦5-♦9
T5: ♣8-♠6-♣J-♣T
T6: ♣9-♠9-♣3-?

You have to discard and this is the position:

Scoring: XIMP

Pass-(Pass)-1♣ - (X)
1♥ - (Pass)-Pass-(3NT)

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[bluecalm]

T♥ is first thought. I can't see how it can hurt and maybe partner will start unblocking from his ♥KQJx.

[Little Kid]

The bidding is correct.

[gnasher]

This is a bit mysterious. Partner appears to be 4=3=3=3, since he didn't raise to 2♥, so why did declarer take the second diamond? And for this to be a problem, declarer must have both aces - otherwise we have five winners.

Say declarer has Ax AJx AKx AQxxx. He didn't duck the diamond because he assumed we'd switch to spades. There's now a risk of squeezing partner on the run of the diamonds. To avoid that, I throw hearts on the remaining clubs, then when declarer exits in diamonds I decline to cash the last one, switching to a spade instead.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2010-May-26, 17:37