x
K98x
QJ98x
Axx
Jxx
AQxx
Tx
KQxx
All the x's are 6's or below. The opening lead is the ten of clubs
(standard). Plan the play. I personally think that one's assessment of
the defenders' skill matters a lot on this hand, so feel free to give
several answers depending on how highly you rate the defense.
I'm off virtually all the time trumps break 4-1, so I'll assume they
are 3-2. I'm not prepared to take a second round finesse in trumps if
an honour falls on my right under the ace except against very poor
players. Given I'm playing for trumps 3-2 I might as well draw two
rounds to start with.
It seems natural to win in hand, play the KA of trumps, and play a
diamond towards dummy. Someone will take that.
(i) If they play another club, win in hand, draw the third trump and
play on diamonds.
(ii) If they win and play two rounds of spades, ruff in dummy and play
a second diamond.
(iii) If LHO goes in with the DK, plays a diamond to RHO's ace and he
plays a third diamond, then we ruff low and hope for the best.
I think I'm missing something, because I'm not sure how the defensive
skill really makes a difference unless they are so bad they would
never play a heart honour from J10x.
Pretty much what I was thinking, except I would've played the Ace then
King of trumps. What's the advantage of King first here?
I wanted to start with a low diamond towards the queen so they don't
know where the 10 is.
The advantage of a low diamond towards the 10 is that they won't know
the diamond count (we could have singleton 10).
Maybe 10 of diamonds to the Queen is best.
Part of what I was thinking was: if you thought that the defenders
weren't very good, then you might play out all three rounds of trumps
and start the diamonds. Of course the defenders can beat the contract
easily by playing spades after that, but I think the majority of
defenders (including some good ones!) would continue clubs, hoping for
someone to score the QC for the fourth defensive trick.
How 'bout CK, HA, HK, DQ?
Regards and Happy Trails,
Scott Needham
Boulder, Colorado, USA