[Siegmund]

From a Sunday Swiss last weekend, spots approximate (none of x'es is a card that will ever set up.)

♠J98
♥Ax
♦ATxx
♣Axxx

♠AKQxx
♥T9xx
♦Kx
♣Kx

You are in 6♠ on the lead of something like the ♣5 (a "small club" but not the smallest one in the deck), and have some work to do.

If you choose to try ace and another heart, LHO wins and switches to the ♦J.

You are at some point going to have to choose whether to worry more about a bad trump break (losing to Txxx) or a bad minor-suit break (running into an overruff when you cross back to your hand) or a bad major-suit break (running into an overruff when you ruff a heart low.)

The line I took was one that had moderate chances of success, but wasn't the one that worked at the table, naturally.

[rhm]

I think I keep it simple.
Win in dummy and play ♥A, heart with the idea to ruff 2 hearts in dummy, using the minor suits kings for transportation.
But cash the ♦A before coming to hand with the diamond king.
If LHO shows up with four hearts, ruff the last heart high and play for trumps to be 3-2
Otherwise ruff low, cash the trump jack and guess which minor suit to ruff and whether low or high in hand. (Probably diamonds, given the lead but depends on what LHO discards on the hearts).
This last decision may depend on what I have seen so far, how suits are breaking, what honors I have seen in the minors and what I can deduce from the opening lead.

There are various ways this line might fail, but other lines look not more likely to succeed.

Rainer Herrmann

[lackeman]

It will be best to cross with the clubs i think since they didnt took the ruf after the heart i think...

[Siegmund]

If you take rhm's line, AND choose to cross in clubs, you will succeed. LHO was 4-3-2-4, RHO 1-4-5-3.

I chickened out, and used a spade to return to my hand for the second ruff, and lost to the 4-1 spade break in the end.