[Mbodell]

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Here are the first few tricks:

♦9 4 A Q
♦2 8 6 T
♣8 2 4 K
♥K T Q 2
♥4 A J 7

What's your plan now, and do you agree with declarer play so far.

[CSGibson]

Mbodell, on 2013-January-31, 02:28, said:

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Here are the first few tricks:

♦9 4 A Q
♦2 8 6 T
♣8 2 4 K
♥K T Q 2
♥4 A J 7

What's your plan now, and do you agree with declarer play so far.

I'm going to play for the strip squeeze, running trump, keeping the 8 of hearts, Ax in spades opposite Qx. I think lefty has both the 9 of hearts and the K of spades - the K of spades based on the diamond spot returned by RHO.

Oh, and the declarer play looks fine.

[Phil]

I have five clubs, one diamond and two aces.

Why did I finesse clubs at T3 and not set up a heart ruff?

[CSGibson]

Phil, on 2013-January-31, 15:03, said:

I have five clubs, one diamond and two aces.

Why did I finesse clubs at T3 and not set up a heart ruff?

Because the strip squeeze is fun to pull off?

In all seriousness, good point.

[Mbodell]

For the hand results see hand 6 here. I had inconsistent thoughts on this hand. I wasn't sure how I'd get to hand after playing on hearts early, and I was a little afraid that if I played ♥A and a ♥ that E would win, play a diamond through and even if I ruff and now ruff a heart, S would over ruff, play another diamond through for an over ruff and now there is a spade loser for down 1. But the ♣8 means only one of the two can over ruff safely.

Once I took the line I did (running the ♣8 was costly to lose on the heart), and was on the board winning the ♥A I stopped to reassess what I knew about the hand and overly discounted W having 6 hearts because W didn't open 2♥. So I crossed to the ♠A and ruffed the ♥8 but was overruffed and now on the diamond back I had to hope for the unlikely 3-3 diamond split or W with no trump and pitch the spade 6. But indeed the strip squeeze does work (as long as I can count N hand accurately and play him for 3=6=2=2).

[3ntmk]

I play spade 2 to spade Ace ,and heart 8 to dummy ruff ,then diamond to discard spade 6.

[gszes]

counting tricks 5c 1d 1h 1s need one more that can come from
the club finesse the spade A and a spade toward the Q with luck
Q will hold if W started with the K. to me by far the best is heart
A followed by low heart we intend to ruff the 3rd heart with the club
8 and that will bring us to 9 tricks via 6 clubs 1d and 2M aces.

If rho wins the 2nd heart and returns a dia we toss our spade loser
if rho wins 2nd heart and returns a trump we hop with the A and
lead our 3rd heart to ruff with the 8. Form there its lights out for
the defense. just embellishing on Phils comment.