[Lord Molyb]

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You may not agree with the bidding or the beginning defense, but here you are.
East leads the ♣J, which is ducked all around. East continues with the ♣T which west wins with the ace and shifts to ♥6, which east wins with the ace. East now thinks for a while and plays the ♣K. West discards a heart.

[mikeh]

Everything tells us that trump are not breaking. LHO has 7 hearts (I assume, given the vulnerability and the fact that with AQ10xxx and KJ10 in the round suits, 3♥ would be weird. Plus the decision to set up our club suit in dummy screams that he doesn't expect us to be able to enjoy the suit.

I am going to ignore 5-0 trumps

I ruff low and advance a low spade to dummy.

If RHO wins, he has no return... he must either return a trump or a diamond.

If a trump, I win the Ace, cash a diamond to dispose of the heart loser in dummy, and then draw trump and run the clubs.

If a diamond, I spurn the marked finesse: win the A, cash the spade A and proceed as above.

If RHO ducks, which is best defence, I am in dummy.

I lead the spade Q, and he can't afford to cover, so it holds. Now I abandon trump and run clubs until he ruffs in. I overruff, cash the diamond A and ruff a diamond to dummy. Both RHO and dummy have but one trump, and his is the boss....but I just run clubs and, if necessary, the heart K at him until he has to ruff.

This line ensures the contract against 4-1 or 3-2 trumps with the K onside. Since I have taken it as given that it is, I haven't given any thought to LHO winning the K, other than to feel that it can't really make any difference.

I was going to discuss the problems that arise should you cash the spade A before leading a low one, but they get a little complex, depending on the exact line taken, so merely leave it as being a bad idea, for reasons the interested reader can work out for himself or herself.

[HighLow21]

mikeh, on 2013-November-19, 15:52, said:

Everything tells us that trump are not breaking. LHO has 7 hearts (I assume, given the vulnerability and the fact that with AQ10xxx and KJ10 in the round suits, 3♥ would be weird. Plus the decision to set up our club suit in dummy screams that he doesn't expect us to be able to enjoy the suit.

I am going to ignore 5-0 trumps

I ruff low and advance a low spade to dummy.

If RHO wins, he has no return... he must either return a trump or a diamond.

If a trump, I win the Ace, cash a diamond to dispose of the heart loser in dummy, and then draw trump and run the clubs.

If a diamond, I spurn the marked finesse: win the A, cash the spade A and proceed as above.

If RHO ducks, which is best defence, I am in dummy.

I lead the spade Q, and he can't afford to cover, so it holds. Now I abandon trump and run clubs until he ruffs in. I overruff, cash the diamond A and ruff a diamond to dummy. Both RHO and dummy have but one trump, and his is the boss....but I just run clubs and, if necessary, the heart K at him until he has to ruff.

This line ensures the contract against 4-1 or 3-2 trumps with the K onside. Since I have taken it as given that it is, I haven't given any thought to LHO winning the K, other than to feel that it can't really make any difference.

I was going to discuss the problems that arise should you cash the spade A before leading a low one, but they get a little complex, depending on the exact line taken, so merely leave it as being a bad idea, for reasons the interested reader can work out for himself or herself.

Exactly -- the key is to not release the space ace until you see what happens on the first round of spades.