[MrAce]

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Forget the bidding , lead is ♥8. Whats our best line ?

[Hanoi5]

The ♥ lead is sort of a bummer.

I could win in hand, unblock diamonds cross to dummy in hearts and ruff a diamond, then play the last ♥ honour and throw a club from the table. If this goes fine, ♣A, club ruff, diamond ruff, club ruff, diamond ruff. If diamonds are 3-3 I could play a the last trump from dummy to a high honour and then the heart.

But that sounds too easy to be good.

[phil_20686]

Feels like it is right to win in hand, cash the ace of diamond and play a club up. If the club K is onside I will now have the entries to finesse in both spades and diamonds. If the club K is offside I will have to ruff a club for one entry to play on diamonds, and get one heart pitch. Or I could try ruffing one diamond and if not Kx I could try to ruff a third round of hearts and take a spade finesse with the last entry. Probably when they win the club they will attack one of dummies entries and force you to play on diamonds at once. It is also possible that RHO might duck the first round of diamonds if he has Kxxx thinking that partner will be able to ruff the third round - it is not that big an oversight to miscount declarers tricks by one (you only need one diamond pitch).

[whereagles]

I think I'm going to need the spade finesse, so I'll just play 4 rounds of hearts discarding 2 clubs from dummy. If all goes well, I'll ruff 2 clubs in dummy and finesse the spade on the way back.

[phil_20686]

whereagles, on 2011-July-02, 11:05, said:

I think I'm going to need the spade finesse, so I'll just play 4 rounds of hearts discarding 2 clubs from dummy. If all goes well, I'll ruff 2 clubs in dummy and finesse the spade on the way back.

If you are going to play like this surely you should at least play three rounds of hearts pitching a club cash the diamond ace and ruff a club and run the diamond queen pitching a heart. In fact, this is certainly better than my line.

I will make now provided hearts 4-3 and either I can get a heart away on the diamond, (Kx Kxx in the slot), essentially always if the Qx or Qxx spade in the slot aswell. And you still have chances even if the second heart is ruffed.

Having said that, it feels like there is a non zero inference that if lho is making a passive lead in hearts, he might well have made a passive lead in trumps with xx or xxx against this auction, so maybe we should take that into consideration.

[nige1]

MrAce said
Forget the bidding , lead is ♥8. Whats our best line ?

My guess...
♥QKA discarding a ♣, ♣A, ruff a ♣, ♦A, ruff a ♣, ruff a ♦, ruff a ♥
Hoping that the player with three hearts also holds Qx or Qxx or xxx or 8732 or 32 or Q or 3 or 2 of trumps.
All a bit fraught. For example, If RHO ruffs the ♥ there is a risk of a trump promotion..

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[kayin801]

My gut says to win in dummy and immediately take the ♠ hook. If it loses we're really constrained on our remaining actions; we need the diamond hook and a ton of luck with the distribution. If it wins we have a choice of plays, and we're better suited to picking up a distribution where we need to hook twice.

Then again, that could just be the tacos I had for dinner.

[MrAce]

A good player played this hand, i was not sure which line was better, thats why i brought it up.

He took ♥ in dummy, and cashed AK ♥ discarding a ♣, ♣A and ruff, ♦ to A, ♣ ruff, ♦ ruff and played 4th ♥ as Nige suggested.

Alternative line seemed to me as Hanoi suggested, take ♥ in hand, ♦A, ♥ to Q, ♦ ruff, ♥A discard a ♣, ♣A and ruff, ♦ ruff, ♣ ruff and play 4th ♦.

On the actual layout West had;

Q2
8xx
Kxx
KJxxx