[awm]

The auction is:

1♦ - Pass - 2♦ - 3♣
4♦ - 5♣ - Pass - Pass
5♦ - 6♣ - Pass - Pass
Double - All Pass

The 2♦ bid was a natural raise (not inverted). The lead is the diamond king and you see:

Scoring: MP

---

How do you maximize your chances to make the contract?

As usual, if not beginner/intermediate please use hidden text.

[rbforster]

I'd draw the trump, ruff out the hearts and play A♠ and another hoping to endplay someone with Hx in spades. I don't like my chances if spades are Hxx-Hxx.

[FrancesHinden]

Rob,

Spoiler

If you want to take that line, you have the order slightly wrong: you should cash the ace of spades fairly early, probably after the trump. If you dare, you should also take a heart ruff before drawing the trump, because otherwise you will have to play a second round of trumps as an entry to dummy. The idea is to give them as little chance as possible to work out to unblock the spade honour, otherwise you need two honours doubleton.

[Wackojack]

Not confident that I will be corrected by an expert but here goes:

Spoiler

I would go for the squeeze rather than ♠Hx. West is very unlikely to hold ♠Hx since that would give East ♠Hxxx and might be expected to bid 1♠. So I would:
Ruff, draw outstanding trump with K♣, play small spade from both hands. Whoever takes, you win either heart or spade return with ace (or claim with a diamond return). Then run the clubs: West is squeezed holding ♠KQ... and ♥QJ.... Also if West is missing one honour in these suits and East holds Hx, the squeeze still works. Even if this does not hold there is still a chance that the opps will discard badly.

I dont think there is any extra mileage in playing off a few rounds of trumps before making the spade play.

[Winstonm]

Spoiler

A squeeze is unlikely as one opponent (presumably west) must hold 4 spades along with 4 hearts and East must not hold the J or Q of hearts third. That would make west 4450 and east 2371 and as little as Jxx of hearts with east destroys any chance for a squeeze. However, if east holds KQ, Kx, or Qx of spades there is a chance. With KQ he cannot escape; with Kx or Qx he would have to play perfectly to escape and declarer's task should be to play to give him as little information as possible before the big decision.

Ruff the diamond, cross in hearts, lead a spade. East has to play the K or Q from Kx or Qx at this point and has little information. If he plays low, win the Ace, cross in hearts, ruff a heart, play one club and then play a low spade. If you ruff out the last heart and east is 2371, he surely would wake up enough to discard his high spade on the 4th heart. Of course, there is one extra chance as well - East could hold K10 or Q10 of spades and plays the 10 the first time - then you can afford to ruff the last heart as a discard then of the K or Q reduces the spade losers to 1 due to the 9-spot in dummy.

[pclayton]

Spoiler

Unless East is playing Goren and skips a 4 card major to raise clubs, West is marked with a 4=4=5=0 shape. A squeeze against West will work, but we need West to hold the H QJ as well. Ruff the diamond, trump to the board and play a spade to the J, which rectifies the count and makes sure West looks after the spade. If East gets cute and plays the K or QS from Hx, just duck the trick.

If West tests you with a low heart, hook the 10, and run the clubs.

The only other possibilities I can see are KQ of spade in East and Hx of spades in West; both of which seem very unlikely on the bidding.