[Tramticket]

---

MP Pairs - club night against reasonable opps.
Lead King of Spades

[nige1]

TramTicket writes "MP Pairs - club night against reasonable opps. Lead King of Spades"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++,
An unimaginative line, to get the ball rolling...

Spoiler

,
Win ♠A. cash ♦A, ruff a ♦, lead a ♥.
If North wins ♥A and gives South a ♠ ruff, on a good day, South might be endplayed.
For example, if South exits with a ♣, you can try ♣T.

---

[The_Badger]

nige1, on 2019-January-04, 08:44, said:

TramTicket writes "MP Pairs - club night against reasonable opps. Lead King of Spades"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++,
An unimaginative line, to get the ball rolling...

Spoiler

,
Win ♠A. cash ♦A, ruff a ♦, lead a ♥.
If North wins ♥A and gives South a ♠ ruff, on a good day, South might be endplayed.
For example, if South exits with a ♣, you can try ♣T.

---

Un-imagination is usually the right way to play a contract, too I can't see any line that is better except if you peek at your opponent's cards, and we all know that's not allowed

[Tramticket]

nige1, on 2019-January-04, 08:44, said:

An unimaginative line, to get the ball rolling...
Win ♠A. cash ♦A, ruff a ♦, lead a ♥.
If North wins ♥A and gives South a ♠ ruff, on a good day, South might be endplayed.
For example, if South exits with a ♣, you can try ♣T.

Nige1's unimaginative line showed more imagination than me at the table. The full hand was:

---

At the table I couldn't think of a way of avoiding the ruff, so played for South to hold a singleton trump. My worry was that if North holds ♥AXX I couldn't afford to use the diamond entry prematurely: say I played ♦A and ruff a diamond then lead a trump ... do I finesse the J immediately (and maybe lose to a singleton J) or play the Q but lose out to AJX since there is unlikely to be a second entry to dummy. The result was that I played the trump Q, losing to the ace, suffered ♠Q and a spade ruff, with South having a safe exit.

So I think it comes down to either:
(1) Playing for trumps 2-2 and south being end-played; or
(2) Same line but if North ducks the ♥A, switch assumption to and play North for AJX and finesse immediately; or
(3) Playing for trumps 3-1 from the start and delay playing diamonds.

But thoughts welcome ...

[cherdano]

The bidding is obviously weird - either North failed to raise with 4-card support, or South has 7 diamonds yet didn't open a preempt. The former seems impossible, and maybe the latter suggests 7222? Impossible to say without knowing your opponents.

Short version - if opponents have a 10-card fit and only compete to the 2-level, play for suits to break...