[awm]

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What is your plan in 6♦? The lead is the ♥8. It's MP scoring, but probably that is not too important on this deal.

[bluecalm]

My gut feeling is to win this, play A♦ and K♦. If they split play for ruffing finesse of K♥ if they don't, draw last trump and play spade to the jack.
I don't have much analysis to offer besides the fact that lead is often from singleton after this auction.

[Fluffy]

play ♥A+♥Q, I expect LHO to hold ♥K most of the time but seems like the safest route to 12 tricks

[whereagles]

The natural lead here is a black suit, so that heart is very likely to be singleton. If I take the ruffing finesse in hearts, RHO won't cover and the queen gets hacked. I end up with only 2 heart tricks; 1 short.

I'll lead a spade to the jack and take it from there.

[gnasher]

whereagles, on 2011-May-04, 05:10, said:

The natural lead here is a black suit, so that heart is very likely to be singleton. If I take the ruffing finesse in hearts, RHO won't cover and the queen gets hacked. I end up with only 2 heart tricks; 1 short.

Unless LHO was 1-1 or 1-4 in the reds, you'll now have 12 tricks: six trumps, three black-suit winners, two hearts and one ruff in dummy.

Even if he had four trumps (very unlikely given the lead), you still survive if he's 3145.

Edit: We might have a problem on the next round - what to do if ♥Q wins, with everyone following and nobody thinking. Even if that happens, we're not worse off than we were at trick one.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2011-May-04, 05:25

[JLOGIC]

I'd just win the heart ace and play the HQ pitching a spade in imps. Not really sure at MP.

[han]

Yes, even if LHO ruffs the heart we are still in very good shape.

[pio_magic]

withdrawn...

[gnasher]

I'll withdraw my rebuttal then

[phil_20686]

Agree that A!h Q!h looks best, but am not sure that a singleton is really that likely as the lead. LHO might just be looking for a passive lead from xxx?

[Fluffy]

going passive when dummy has a 5 card suit is very bad idea. But going passive when dummy has a 5 card suit in wich you hold xxx is a suicide.

[cherdano]

Fluffy, on 2011-May-13, 09:07, said:

going passive when dummy has a 5 card suit is very bad idea. But going passive when dummy has a 5 card suit in wich you hold xxx is a suicide.

And going passive against a small suit slam when dummy has a 5-card suit in which you hold xxx is....

[phil_20686]

Fluffy, on 2011-May-13, 09:07, said:

going passive when dummy has a 5 card suit is very bad idea. But going passive when dummy has a 5 card suit in wich you hold xxx is a suicide.

Hands that bid keycard over 3D almost always have 0-1 hearts and a side source of tricks, so its relatively unlikely that the hearts can be set up when you are on lead with xxx. I mean, exchange the J of hearts and a small one and the hearts will never yield more than one trick unless you can ruff them out.

[Fluffy]

Phil I think you are very wrong:

-Hands jumping to keycard having a void is something I'd rule out quickly unless declarer played mind games.
-Hands with doubleton Ace or King on the other hand seem pretty likelly.
-Hands with singleton will see us leading our xxx through dummy's KJ109xx/AKJxx etc. A much brighter idea would be to lead the black suit declarer has Ax or Axx before partner's ♥A is knocked down.