[Phil]

Playing against very good opponents you arrive in 6♣:

Q62
AKQ4
A8
9752

AJT3
Void
QJ42
AJT83

Your line?

[WellSpyder]

This may require an "early decision", but presumably I can wait until they have made an opening lead.....?

[wclass___]

♦A-♥A-♥K-♥Q-♣A?

I must be missing something.

[kfay]

 wclass___, on 2012-July-16, 08:34, said:

♦A-♥A-♥K-♥Q-♣A?

I must be missing something.

You can finesse in either suit.

Also, what do you plan on doing when clubs are 3-1?

Meh nevermind I guess you can 8 to the 9 and then hook.

[yin970902]

I think 6♣ auction is aggressive.
If West leads ♦,the 6♣ is put in a critical situation.

[CSGibson]

1: I would like the lead

2: I would like the auction so that I can judge whether the lead is called for in context of the auction, or whether it has additional possible meaning.

[akhare]

By inteference, W led a ♦ spot right?

It's the only lead that will cause declarer the (implied) titular angst .

Anyway, as others have noted, can we have more information please?

[Phil]

 Phil, on 2012-July-16, 07:54, said:

Playing against very good opponents you arrive in 6♣:

Q62
AKQ4
A8
9752

AJT3
Void
QJ42
AJT83

Your line?

Crap - ♥7 lead sorry.

[Phil]

Auction was 1N 2C 2H 3C 3D 4D 6C.

[Hanoi5]

Can't I pospone it by ruffing and playing ♣A and another?

[Myrmidon73]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum so please critique my reasoning:

1)For the trump suit it seems like playing the ace of clubs only wins when the clubs are 2-2 or there is a stiff honor. The probability of that is something like 40% + 0.5*50% = 65%. So, this line loses something like 20% of the time right off the bat (lose a club, and at least one of the finesses, assuming you can't pitch a diamond on the 13th spade). Even if you can only have one club loser, you still need to take a finesse, so it seems like ruffing first round is something like a 40% make. Trying to hook a double finesse in clubs seems better.

2) As for guessing the Kd or Ks, is it normal for good players to not lead away from Kxxx against slams? The lead is definitely aggressive, and obviously there are a lot of other variables that are part of the opening lead as well.

3) For the line I think pitching the spades on the hearts and taking the club hook is probably best. We still have an entry to the board via diamond to take another club finesse, and are still free to take the diamond finesse. The only reason I chose spades is that I think its less likely that an opponent leads away from a king here, so because LHO didn't lead a pointed suit, I think his chances of holding each king goes up. So, the diamond finesse seems slightly +EV.

[inquiry]

I am going with double hook in clubs (twice if first loses), and play to hook spades twice, ruffing fourth round of spades in dummy.

Plan 3♥, 4♣, 3♠, 1♠ ruff, and the ♦A

Plan may need some adjustment if and only if East has four clubs. So let me know if he does.

[gnasher]

 inquiry, on 2012-July-16, 23:08, said:

I am going with double hook in clubs (twice if first loses), and play to hook spades twice, ruffing fourth round of spades in dummy.

Plan 3♥, 4♣, 3♠, 1♠ ruff, and the ♦A

Have you counted your entries to dummy?

[Fluffy]

The line that requires less is spade finese, with diamonds you have to ruff 2 in dummy and bad trump splits make it harder. Playing clubs from hand is not ideal, but it is not that worse.

Ruff in hand and play 2 rounds of clubs, if clubs split both fineses are equal, and might pick diamonds over spades just because I can test stiff spade king before diamonds. Otherwise just go for spades.

[rhm]

 Fluffy, on 2012-July-17, 01:54, said:

The line that requires less is spade finese, with diamonds you have to ruff 2 in dummy and bad trump splits make it harder. Playing clubs from hand is not ideal, but it is not that worse.

It is.
You succeed in trumps about 65% of the time.
Finessing in trumps succeeds in more than 70% with some additional chances when KQxx is onside.
In comparison a stiff spade king offside is a 1.2% chance.

The entry situation to dummy requires careful attention, but is manageable.
Rely on the spade finesse. A small club to the ten at trick 2 looks best to me, so that a second finesse later allows you to remain in dummy.
If LHO shows out on the first club, continue with the ♣J

Rainer Herrmann

[Phil]

Meh - not sure I had the ♣7 in dummy.

Alan Graves is on your left. I took the passive lead as indication both pointed kings were off, even though playing spades is marginally better without the inference.

Other table got a diamond lead and decided to pop and pitch diamonds on hearts right away and didn't hook trump.

[655321]

 Phil, on 2012-July-17, 15:44, said:

I took the passive lead as indication both pointed kings were off

This confuses me, are you saying that he would be more likely to lead a diamond if he had the ♦K, but less likely to lead a spade if he had the ♠K?

[Phil]

 655321, on 2012-July-17, 17:43, said:

This confuses me, are you saying that he would be more likely to lead a diamond if he had the ♦K, but less likely to lead a spade if he had the ♠K?

No I'm saying because he didn't lead a diamond or a spade that he had both.

Except he had neither.