[mike777]

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Low spade lead

Opp silent


4H by south


I just made a complete mess of this....

what is the best line here, what should my thinking be at trick one


I just felt as if I messed up at trick one but definitely I felt I was a disaster at trick two, then my play only got worse...



the good news was I actually played pretty well in the rest of the match, we won

My first hand diagram hope I got it right
ty JB

[pescetom]

I doubt you should torture yourself for this, well done for the win.

FWIW I imagine that at the table I would have taken with Ace, run a diamonds to Ace (planning to finesse next time) and then played off the spades hoping West wins.

[steve2005]

pescetom, on 2026-August-29, 14:43, said:

I doubt you should torture yourself for this, well done for the win.

FWIW I imagine that at the table I would have taken with Ace, run a diamonds to Ace (planning to finesse next time) and then played off the spades hoping West wins.

that line asks to get ruffed in diamonds

i would win AS
lead trump towards KQ
if it holds go back to dummy with club and lead another heart

if Ace pops you have 10 tricks unless ace singleton and probably even then

well done winning match agreed

[mikeh]

Short term thinking has one winning and playing three rounds of clubs to pitch a spade. That’s very short sighted. Wtf are you going to do next, even assuming that the clubs stand up. You still have trump and diamond issues even if the club Jack drops. Bear in mind that if the hand with the heart Ace has the fourth club, the other defender gets a ruff. Meanwhile, you’ve eliminated an entry to dummy to play on hearts.

My idea is to win and play a heart to the King. If the heart ace is onside, I think I’m cold on a 3-2 trump break. I’m not down yet if the heart ace is offside, though I won’t be able to handle 4-1 trump very often.

As for the minors, I’m hoping to be able to get some kind of inferential count and then decide to play for a diamond hook or a minor suit squeeze, or the club Jack dropping. I like my chances but not if I don’t stop to THINK at trick one.

[mike777]

I did think about the hand before trick one, however I only got as far as what if they duck the KH at trick two.


What do I do?

Do I continue hearts out of my hand? Do I cross to the KC and lead another H or something else at trick 3?

Anyway I blew a fuse and right after I did something else at trick two, I knew that was wrong. In fact right at the table, I thought perhaps my play at trick one was not best...It quickly went downhill from there...



At the other table West did not duck the H and that was that....

[Kaitlyn S]

mikeh, on 2026-August-29, 15:24, said:

Short term thinking has one winning and playing three rounds of clubs to pitch a spade. That's very short sighted. Wtf are you going to do next, even assuming that the clubs stand up. You still have trump and diamond issues even if the club Jack drops. Bear in mind that if the hand with the heart Ace has the fourth club, the other defender gets a ruff. Meanwhile, you've eliminated an entry to dummy to play on hearts.

My idea is to win and play a heart to the King. If the heart ace is onside, I think I'm cold on a 3-2 trump break. I'm not down yet if the heart ace is offside, though I won't be able to handle 4-1 trump very often.

As for the minors, I'm hoping to be able to get some kind of inferential count and then decide to play for a diamond hook or a minor suit squeeze, or the club Jack dropping. I like my chances but not if I don't stop to THINK at trick one.

Why is it shortsighted to play three clubs? If I can lose two hearts and a diamond, I make the contract. Clubs split more than half the time, and if they get a ruff with the fourth club, much of the time it is going to be with a natural trump trick. If clubs are 5-2, they are very likely to be trumping with a natural trump trick. Or at least a trick they were getting anyway because I'm leading hearts from hand. If I pick up diamonds, I make the hand with this line even if hearts are 4-1. I think that not losing a spade is huge in enhancing your chances.