[MrAce]

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IMP, opponents are as good as they can be. They use std carding and signals. Don't bother with the bidding, you are in 3NT

Lead= ♣T, RHO plays 7

If at some point you play a ♦ towards hand and finesse, it holds, RHO playing 4 and LHO 2. If you play ♠ Q at some point, this also holds, LHO playing 2 and RHO 6.

How would you proceed ?

[gnasher]

I need the diamond onside, because otherwise I'll lose at least two clubs, two aces and a diamond. (I could instead play LHO for something like Jxx xxx Kx Q109xx, but I'd have to play for it at trick two, by leading diamonds from hand, and even then they could switch to hearts to beat me.)

To make with diamonds 3-1, I need to find a second entry to dummy, which will also be my ninth trick. I know LHO has one of the aces, because RHO passed in first seat with ♣J and ♦K.

It seems to be a guess which one he has, but I'll try a spade to the king, in case RHO decides to duck with Axx. I'm not sure why he should do that, but I can't see him ducking a heart.

Also, playing a heart might go lots down if the diamond is wrong, eg heart to the king, diamond finesse winning, club to dummy, diamond finesse losing, cross in clubs, heart back.

[lamford]

I would win the first club in dummy, finesse the diamond, lead the queen of spades and if it holds play a heart to the king. If that loses, I will have to lay down the ace of diamonds, but if it wins, I will repeat the diamond finesse. My guess is that the first diamond will be ducked rarely with Kxx and almost never with Kx.

Playing a second spade may fail when they rise and clear the clubs.

[gszes]

The opps have no clue you have this mountain dia holding
and will normally fail to see the danger of ducking tricks.

trick 2 spade Q this will be ducked on all hand where rho isnt
looking at AJx of spades and the heart A.

trick 3 heart toward K if LHO makes the perfectly normal play
of ducking their A here--remember they know nothing about the
avalanche of diamonds about to fall on their heads--we are in
dummy and can lead a dia to the Q. If this holds we can go back
to dummy in clubs and repeat the finesse going for the overtrick.

If rho wins the heart A we are no worse off than we were when we
started the hand and can use the club entry to dummy to hope
rho started with K or Kx in diamonds so our finesse works.

defense is hard take advantage of that knowledge

[MrAce]

gszes, on 2013-June-04, 09:52, said:

If rho wins the heart A we are no worse off than we were when we
started the hand and can use the club entry to dummy to hope
rho started with K or Kx in diamonds so our finesse works.

No you are in worse shape if ♠ A was on and ♥ A was off. (of course LHO would duck the Q as you wanted them to)

[gszes]

MrAce, on 2013-June-04, 11:44, said:

No you are in worse shape if ♠ A was on and ♥ A was off. (of course LHO would duck the Q as you wanted them to)

I am thinking of taking up chess (another game i stink at) for some inexplicable
reason I assumed we would be reduced to 8 tricks if the spade was taken
on the first round (trust me that's what happened). Somehow 6s 2c 1s failed
to add up to 9. My advice is to carefully count your potential tricks (like i failed to
do) and adopt Gnashers LOP since THEN you will be no worse off than you
were when the hand started gaining 6d 2c 1s whenever the dia K is K Kx and if
the spade A is with lho 6d 2c 1s whenever rho has dia K Kx or Kxx.

[MrAce]

This 3NT actually gets a little tricky later during the play.

- Assume we started taking ♣ in dummy and took ♦ finesse, which held everyone following (was the actual start in US team trials). Now...

a-You can play ♠ Q and expect it to be taken, if taken this creaes a ♠ entry to repeat ♦ finesse. If not taken, imo now we should try to reach dummy with ♥ K , if K is taken by RHO we are pretty much down when RHO has Kxx ♦

b-You can play small ♠ to K, if wins you are in good shape. If loses, however, and they continue clubs, you have to decide how the clubs are split. This is where it gets tricky, If they are 4-4 you can afford to win the club and now try to use other major K as an entry and we know LHO has a major A. They can only score 2♣ + 2 major aces. But if clubs are 3-5 5-3 we have to try to drop the ♦ K because ♥ A on will not help anymore.

What is the club split ? Opening leader may have T9xx T9x Tx QT9xx(x) (if that is the case RHO will play ♣ J when take sp[K] with A or would have unblocked at T1) So imo if clubs are not 4-4, RHO is more likely to hold longer clubs. I am taking out the possibility of RHO holding QJxxxx clubs because then he would have probably doubled 2♣ with 10 hcp , 2 side entries to show the lead. Note that if 2-6 clubs, he has no mor entry to enjoy the clubs, which would make trying to go dummy with ♥ K right play, besides 4-4 clubs break. (after small ♠ to K failed)

There is an other danger in playing ♠Q then playing towards ♥ K if ♠ is ducked. Which seems like we can still score 5♦+2M+2♣ tricks, but defense takes 2M+2♣+1♦ trick before we do. They can even continue playing hearts after taking ♥ K.

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This was the deal. I would personally play small ♠ to K, and if it loses, i would try to work my way after that. If somehow i can manage to figure clubs are 4-4 i would play a heart, otherwise, i would now try to drop the K. Which major to chose to go to dummy is a guess, but if spades is wrong, it at leasts doesnt create more tricks for defense. On the other hand, LHO could have chosen to lead ♥ if he did not have ♥ A from any 3 or 4 card holdings ? I dunno.

[nige1]

You might try ♠Q intending to overtake if LHO shows any interest.