[FrancesHinden]

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Aggregate (total points) scoring.
RHO gives it a lot of consideration before passing out 4Hx
LHO leads a top diamond, and RHO shows an odd number. You ruff, and play a spade. LHO plays the ace, RHO following with some amorphous pip.
LHO now plays the ace of clubs.

Play the play.

[mikeh]

I'm ruffing in dummy, and ruffing a diamond to lead a spade up.

If LHO plays low, I hook (I am playing him not to rise with Ax(x) in spades.

Let me know what happens..I may have already failed, but if not, I'll continue. There are so many permutations that I won't take the time to try to write out all the lines.

[CamHenry]

I'm suspicious about the lack of a trump lead, or trump continuation when in with the ♠A. If LHO started with A/Jxxx/AKxxxx/Ax, which is consistent with his bidding, he should probably lead trumps at every opportunity. Why did he grab the ♠A? He was either forced to, held the Q as well, or held sufficient length that he was worried I was leading a singleton.

Now consider the diamonds - why did RHO help me get count on the hand? He should know his partner has 6+ diamonds, and therefore with 3 he knows I'm showing out. It could be that he's falsecarded already, reasoning it shouldn't hurt partner.

Counting tricks, I have 8 trumps on a crossruff, the ♠K, and I need one more. I may be able to establish a ♣; a major risk with that line is that I allow LHO to discard ♠ losers on the ♣ leads from my hand.

I can't improve on Mike's line, since I won't have any entries to cash spades if they do set up.

[rhm]

mikeh, on 2013-September-15, 19:47, said:

I'm ruffing in dummy, and ruffing a diamond to lead a spade up.

If LHO plays low, I hook (I am playing him not to rise with Ax(x) in spades.

Hooking the spade is a serious error.
From the bidding and play it is unlikely that West has a 4 card major or a major suit void, in which case (I think) you can not make anyway.
Assuming this is not the case going up with the ♠K can not loose.

Win the spade king and assuming East follows just ruff the next spade with the trump ace.
Play a heart to the king and feed opponents spades.
Unless East can ruff with the jack overruff East.
If West ruffs and plays a club, discard a diamond from dummy.
Nobody can stop you from enjoying your spades.

Assume West shows out on the second spade.
If he ruffs he makes your life easy. You will discard a diamond on the club continuation go to the kinng of hearts, ruff a spade with the trump ace and return to the queen to enjoy your spades. This looses only if West has a singleton in both majors.
So assume West discards on the second spade. Win and play the jack of spades.

a) If West covers, trump with the ace and play as above
b) If West plays low, discard a club and the play continues similarly, whether West ruffs or not. If West continues clubs discard a diamond, win the next trick in hand, go to the king of hearts, ruff a spade with the trump ace and go to the queen of hearts, enjoying your spades.

Rainer Herrmann

[gnasher]

rhm, on 2013-September-16, 03:37, said:

Hooking the spade is a serious error.
From the bidding and play it is unlikely that West has a 4 card major or a major suit void, in which case (I think) you can not make anyway.

Do you mean East? If so, I agree.

If West has something like AQxx x AKJxxx Ax, I think we can make by finessing the spade: East ruffs the spade and must return a club, setting up our queen, so we lead ♠K to force East to use another trump, then ruff a third club. That's nine trumps and one club.

This is certainly consistent with West's bidding and play. Can East have x Jxx xxx KJxxxx ? I couldn't have, but maybe it's believable after East's pause.

[rhm]

gnasher, on 2013-September-16, 04:39, said:

Do you mean East? If so, I agree.

If West has something like AQxx x AKJxxx Ax, I think we can make by finessing the spade: East ruffs the spade and must return a club, setting up our queen, so we lead ♠K to force East to use another trump, then ruff a third club. That's nine trumps and one club.

This is certainly consistent with West's bidding and play. Can East have x Jxx xxx KJxxxx ? I couldn't have, but maybe it's believable after East's pause.

I meant West.
As I said it is unlikely but not impossible that West has a four card major. However, West is quite strong and would double regardless. Only both minor suit voids gives you play for the contract. East hesitation indicates to me diamond support with a likely singleton in hearts.
I agree that against your layout you need to hook, but it is a specific holding, where the hook wins and the hook looses against many more distributions, where East has the queen.
I do not think that West bidding and play indicates the spade queen. His play seems to indicate that he wants to force the dummy to kill the spades.

For example you could make against Ax, Jxxx, AKJxxx, A by playing ♠K and discarding on the next spade. You can crossruff or if West ruffs partners spade queen and switches to trumps you can set up spades.
You may feel this a likely layout, given the behavior of the opponents, but again I reject this because

a) West could have beaten you with a trump switch
b) It looses against other more likely distributions in my opinion.

Rainer Herrmann

[gnasher]

Maybe we need to go back a step. Frances, what did the double mean?