[kgr]

My intention of this post is seeing if there is anything I should do better. Or even if there are any more conclusion I could draw at any stage. Maybe this is a boring hand and there is no more in it, but I was an uncomfortable play.

I'm South, all other players are Jack; so comments on 2NT bid are not helping anyone
MP's

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opps play udca
1) West leads ♥K (East ♥8). I wondered if it would be best to duck this and hope that West continues ♥. Playing ♥9 is probably not going to help for that?
I took ♥A
Opps have 20 pnts and they are 10-10 or 11-9; West already showed 5
2) It looks like I have to cross to dummy now, so I played a ♣ to ♣A. I didn't really like to 'cut' my communication to dummy, but I had no other option?(♣5-♣7-♣A-♣8).
I didn't really look at opps cards. If I would then I know now that clubs are probably 5-3.
3) ♣A was my last direct entry to dummy, but opps will probably play ♣ at some time or I can go to dummy with a ruff. So I don't cash ♣K yet (I would also not know what to discard). It looked best to play trump?
♦2-♦3-♦J-♦Q.
West already showed 7 pnts, unlikely that he has another A.
4)♣T-♣K-♣3-♠4
Not 100% clear what I had to discard, but ♠ looked best. Taking ♣K looked obvious, ducking and ruffing would give me a problem for the next trick.
5) I played another ♦ without a clear plan on what to do next. It looked clear to play a ♦ to the K.
Oops: East discarded ♠8; => 3♦ -4

[Free]

After ♣A I agree that you shouldn't play ♣K just yet (otherwise opps can play ♣ any time and you'll have to ruff in your own hand). However, I'd start creating a 'sure' new entry to dummy by playing ♠ to the K first. I definitely need a ♠ ruff, so there's no hurry to play ♦ just yet imo.

[WellSpyder]

Your inferences about the opponents' hands seem fine to me, but I'm not so sure about your ideas about what to do with your own hands.

1) Ducking ♥K looks like a good idea to me. True, West may well not continue the suit, but it may well not be clear to him which is the best switch. And even if he does find a ♣ switch you are no worse off than before.

2) Assuming a ♣ switch, I'm not sure you should be in such a hurry to play trumps. Dummy's trumps are likely to be needed to handle spade losers, for instance. I think a simply ♠ to K as soon as you are in dummy will give you more options. Even if it loses to the K you will be able to organise at least one ♠ ruff to get back to dummy later.

[cherdano]

Yeah, why wouldn't you play a spade to the king at trick three? Spade ruffs will be your reentries to dummy (and maybe opponents will play some of the finesses for you, letting you know what to use the dummy entry for).

[Phil]

I wouldn't duck T1 as others have said. This would be bad if RHO has T8x (yes I can see the diagram, but OP did say UDCA) and its not like like we can discard hearts on anything useful in dummy. We have a lot of potential losers on this hand, but if I can hold my losers to 1♠ + 1♥ + 2♦ I'm in much better shape.

After winning the ♥A, play a club to the King and a spade up. As others have said, this starts to establish communication with the dummy. Assuming the ♠K wins, we give up a spade and our continuations depend on what the opponent's play. But in general I hope to establish my hearts, pitch a spade on the good club (as late as possible), and draw trump.

This was against Jack? You must have programmed it to have this agreement about 2N...

[kgr]

Phil, on 2013-May-09, 09:01, said:

This was against Jack? You must have programmed it to have this agreement about 2N...

The only thing somehow related is inverted minors

[kgr]

Thanks all for the answers.
I didn't like to play Spades myself from this combination, which seems to be an error on this hand.

[CamHenry]

You're right that it's a (spade) combination you want oppo to lead, but none of the other suits is any better for you. That's why the spade towards hand is a good play - you're losing one spade anyway, even if one goes on a ♥, so you might as well lose it early. Also, it means you start taking ruffs, and in 20-20 partscores that's usually the way to go.

[Free]

Actually you just want LHO to play ♠. When RHO plays a ♠ you just hope you can guess it right.

[gszes]

aside from agreeing to play spades let me throw in some other ideas.
While the opps indeed have 20 hcp there is no strong reason to assume
they are 11-9 10-10 lho could easily have been silenced by your 1d opening
and be much stronger than you would expect otherwise.

Second idea if you were going to play trumps you should probably start with the dia 9
rather than small to the J. While it makes no difference on this hand (yuck) there is no
particular reason rho cannot have QTx of diamonds and you could hold your dia losers to 1.
Playing as you did toward the J virtually guarantees you 2 dia losers.

Third idea when you decided to tackle trumps did you have any plan for what to do
when trumps were drawn?? IE how am i going to get back to dummy at least twice so
I can try to finesse rho for the heart T and maybe even lead up toward the spade K and
cash my other club winner???? Don't fall for platitudes like get the children off the street
when there are more strategic goals that need to be addressed.