[cnszsun]

Scoring: IMP

1N-2C
2H-6N

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Lho lead ♦J, you win in hand, if you lead ♦9 next, it will win.
What's your plan?

[Codo]

A lead from JTxx is not too attractive, so why did he choose it?
I guess he has some values in all suits.
Anyway after the two diamonds I start with a heart to the ace and the ten of spades. Spades will give me the 11. trick in 75 % of all cases and I will look for a squeeze or a good view in clubs for the 12. later.

[ArtK78]

It is clear that spades offers a very good chance for establishing an 11th trick. But does it offer the best chance for winning 12?

There is a lot to be said for playing on hearts immediately. The best play in the heart suit is AK and a third round. You are down immediately if one opponent holds QJxx (but not QJxxx, as an opp will show out on the second round), but you will establish an 11th trick if either opp has a singleton honor, a doubleton honor or the suit splits 3-3. In addition, every so often one opponent will hold the QJ doubleton and you will have 12 top tricks.

Assuming that neither opponent has QJxx of hearts, you will be in a better position to determine how to play the black suits for 5 tricks. If RHO wins the third round of hearts, he may return a spade forcing you to decide immediately whether to play for the spade finesse or the combination of the clubs running or the squeeze.

An alternate play in the heart suit would be to play one top honor and duck the second heart. That has the advantage of not going down immediately if an opp holds QJxx of hearts, but it offers less of a chance of bringing in the heart suit for 3 winners. If a heart honor drops on the first round of the suit, you can still pick up QJ doubleton for 4 heart winners or just play the suit from the top for 3 tricks. You lose the chance of picking up doubleton honor to establish 3 tricks.

[jtfanclub]

ArtK78, on Oct 4 2007, 10:12 AM, said:

You lose the chance of picking up doubleton honor to establish 3 tricks.

You can still get half of them- one heart honor, back to hand, and a small heart towards the board. If LHO plays a heart honor, cover it.

[Halo]

In real life I expect I would (after nine of diamonds holds) play clubs King, Ace , Queen, keeping the top hearts as entries for spade finesses. The cards don't appear to be in the right places to pressurise anyone after playing on hearts.

[Quantumcat]

How does the mentioned squeeze work if you choose to do that?

[Halo]

Quantumcat, on Oct 4 2007, 03:45 PM, said:

How does the mentioned squeeze work if you choose to do that?

I presume this is not addressed to me since I said I do not propose to rely on a squeeze.

[matmat]

i tried various possible plays and reached a disheartening conclusion. I have no idea how to play this game...

my first inclination was to not play a d at trick 2, but rather a heart up and immediately finesse the spade queen.

[Codo]

Quantumcat, on Oct 5 2007, 05:45 AM, said:

How does the mentioned squeeze work if you choose to do that?

One possibility is to find someone with 44 in HEarts and clubs.
Your ending will be
♥AKx,♣A9x opps.♥ T9, ♣KQT7 and the guy who had 4/4 cannot earn one more trick.