[Gerben42]

Playing 4♥ yesterday this was a side suit. You have enough entries to either side if you like, but cannot arrange it in a way that they will play back this suit for you. At the table it was a pure problem, i.e. really no guidelines how to guess it.

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What is the best MP play here? (I can ask Suitplay but I didn't have that at the table either)

[matmat]

i think in theory you're supposed to finesse against the 10 with the original holding and play for the top honors to be split.

just a guess, of course.

[Fluffy]

run the 9 is the proper technique if you had the 7.

Now its all teh same except you'll fail on 4 more cases: K107 -Q3 ; Q107-K3; K1073-Q and Q1073-K.

I think only these 4 won't make a big difference.

[whereagles]

Lack of the 7 makes this quite tricky. This requires a statistical study or a check at the dictionary of suit combos

[awm]

It seems like there are three possible lines:

(1) Start with low to the jack. If LHO plays a high honor, win the ace and lead towards the jack next. This scores three tricks if RHO has 73, T3, T7, T73, K73, Q73.

(2) Lead the nine, letting it ride if LHO plays low. If LHO plays the ten or an honor then cover cheaply, planning to let the eight ride next time. This scores three tricks if RHO has 7, 73, T73, K7, Q7.

(3) Lead the nine, letting it ride if LHO plays low. If LHO plays the ten or an honor, then cover cheaply, planning to lead low to the ace next time. This scores three tricks if RHO has 73, T73, K73, Q73.

So if the goal is to score three tricks, it seems like line (1) is best. Of course, there are also positions where you have difficulty scoring two tricks; I will let someone else analyze these but I suspect line (1) is still best overall at MP.

[pclayton]

If you are going to lead the 9, the 8 has to be superior. LHO will be less likely to cover looking at HTx /HT7