Winstonm, on 2014-July-11, 15:44, said:
Now I'm curious. My line of play comes to 12 tricks unless the clubs are 5/1 or 6/0. What kind of board is +680?
That is not true.
12 tricks require much more, not least that trumps break.
You also risk a simple trump promotion in diamonds, say when West has the
♣K and 5 diamonds and East the last trump.
But better still when the club jack is played the defense could duck.
It is fairly easy to see for the defense that declarer is stuck in hand and wants to get to dummy to draw the last trump.
This is good defense, but much easier than ducking an immediate club finesse or returning a club instead of a diamond on an immediate club finesse.
How do you continue?
Presumably you now switch to spades.
East wins and a club is returned putting you back in hand. (You won't risk the club finesse now, would you?)
Getting to dummy, no matter whether you try to ruff the third club or the fourth spade (after discarding your club loser on the third spade), risks a trump promotion if East has the third trump not to mention that spades could be 5-2.
I am not claiming this line is terrible, only that 12 tricks are not assured against reasonable defense and it looks to me that 12 tricks are much more likely single dummy on the line I suggested irrespective of where the club king is.
But it confirms that there are numerous ways of playing the hand.
For example one could start with the spade finesse and simply rely on that one of two black finesses will work, in which case you are likely to come to 12 tricks if trumps break.
Starting with spades has the advantages of establishing a way back to dummy.
Starting with the club finesse has the advantage that on many variations you will not need the spade finesse, in particular if the club finesse loses and the defense is not brilliant, which I never assume. (Catering to good defense is something different and prudent.)
Rainer Herrmann