[kfgauss]

AQ53

J97

In context:

AQ53 A AK8xx J10x

J97 108xxxx J AKx

RHO (East in my [rotated] diagram) deals:

P P 1H X
P 1N P 3N
P P P

West (the 1H bidder) leads ♥K, taken in dummy perforce. What now?

(Fantoni and Bocchi diverged here.)

[Chamaco]

My line in hidden text.

Spoiler

Seems like we should hope for a doubleton honor.

Given the bidding I am going to play for Kx in opener's hand, so, low to the ♠Q and, if it holds, duck a diamond on the way back.

Opener may cash 1 heart honor, but not the second (establishing a trick for declarer)

[Walddk]

Chamaco, on Oct 15 2005, 12:34 PM, said:

My line in hidden text.

Spoiler

Seems like we should hope for a doubleton honor.

Gioven the bidding I am going to play for Kx zin opener's hand, so, low to the ♠Q and, if it holds, duck a diamond on the way back.

Opener may cash 1 heart honor, but not the second (establishing a trick for declarer)

You seem to have missed that you are in the wrong hand for a spade finesse after trick 1.

Roland

[Chamaco]

Walddk, on Oct 15 2005, 10:48 AM, said:

You seem to have missed that you are in the wrong hand for a spade finesse after trick 1.

Roland

Oh right
I'll immediately duck a diamond then.

[kenrexford]

I may be insane, but here's my line, and why.

Third hand opening 1H, contextually, is very revealing. With all thirteen points in this hand, he'd have K-KQJ-Q-Q, with small cards. This is hardly worthy of game aspirations. Therefore, I expect Opener to have Kxxx-KQJxx in the majors, for not opening 2H. The King lead confirms this (why not Queen or Jack?)

Kxxx seems too little, so I expect K10xx.

If RHO held six small diamonds, he probably has a transfer over 1H-X of 2C. So, I expect the club Queen to be with LHO, but short, or with RHO.

This is the guess. However, if RHO has it, I have troubles.

So, I finesse the spade 7 at trick two, playing RHO for 8x. On a diamond Queen shift, I win the Ace, cross to a high club, and finesse spades. If RHO covers, I can come back to hand and throw Opener in with a heart. Eventually he will be forced to lead another diamond or spade (to avoid a show-up in clubs). Hopefully I will have the count. If not, I have a show-up squeeze in diamonds and clubs, I believe.

[Trpltrbl]

Just for thrills, the ♠ suit you can play for 3 tricks over 66% of the times.
Start with the J and if covered you win and play small to the 7.
If other hand wins you play the Ace and if 10 didn't drop you play the Q.

As for the play of the hand, the minor suits don't really matter too much.

The ♣ suit is either onside or he is endplayed, the !d suit you are not bringing in unless ♦109 2nd or 3rd in one hand, still over 10% for that.
So I will win in the hand, and play low ♦ to the Q.
If he wins he can cash 1 big ♥ and he is pretty much endplayed from that point on.
So let's say other hand wins, and plays a ♣ back. You win the Ace and play the ♠ J, he covers and you win. Now you play ♦AK , just to see if the 9 10 are dropping.
Of course they don't.
Now you take the ♣ finesse, just for show, since you don't really have to finesse. And again he is endplayed.
The whole hand revolves around the ♠ 10.

GBB

[Fluffy]

The bidding suggests West has no 4c♠, then playing low to the 9 has a point. I think I would play that way.

[Flame]

I would play diamond to the J at trick 2.

[kfgauss]

So nobody has found either of their lines yet.

I hoped people would discuss the suit combo in the abstract before discussing their line of play, but I'll now ask explicitly (Mike has given an answer, but didn't give any reasoning):

1. What is the best play for 3 tricks with AQ53 opposite J97? (Max tricks may also be of interest here, as 3 spade tricks doesn't immediately give us 9 tricks.)

2. If the best line requires lots of transportation, are there nearly as good lines that don't?

3. If you're constrained to lead first from the dummy, what's the best play for 3 tricks?

4. What is your line of play on this hand? We can discuss/think about whether not playing on spades right now is best, but I will tell you that one of them played on spades right now and the other crossed to ♣A and played on spades.

4a: Which of these do you prefer, and why? (And what specific way do you play on spades in either case.)

4b: Do you prefer some other line (not playing on spades right now) more, and if so, why?

Andy

[Rebound]

Put me in the "club to the Ace, then play on spades" camp, FWIW.

The bidding places the spade King with West. The question is, who has the 10? I'm going to play East for it and try to create an entry at the same time. I lead the spade Jack.

I presume West covers. If not I have my three tricks. If the finesse loses, I'm wrong altogether and you can ignore the rest of this post, but I digress :-)

I win the trick with the Ace and lead low to the 9.