[AL78]

MPs, EW playing Acol, weak NT. In case it is relevant, most of the field is playing some variant of Acol with a weak NT.

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♦J led. Plan the play.

[P_Marlowe]

I let other do the play, but my suggestion is, to bid 3C instead of 3S,
if you think the worth another shot (*), sometimes responders minors may be
switched.

(*) This is also a debatable thing, but a different topic.

[LBengtsson]

It is a good hand to post AL78. Think you have to play the ♦A on first trick (pitch a ♥) and then play ♣J on trick 2. If it loses it will give you an entry to try the ♥ suit later - that is obvious. But a good North will hold up the ♣K. Now what? Think I will play ♥J at trick 3 if ♣J wins. This is not an easy hand to play. But as you only have one certain entry to dummy, with ♦A, you must use this entry to establish tricks where you can. The opps. will try to reduce your trump holding by playing ♦ each time they are in, and then you are left to play from your hand.

I think this line gives you the best chances. Have noticed I am first to comment on the play so it must be difficult lol!

[DavidKok]

I think this is a difficult hand. I looked at it briefly yesterday then forgot about it. With low confidence, my plan is:
Win the ace of diamonds, pitching a heart.
Run the jack of clubs. If it loses, we're in a decent spot - ruff the likely diamond return, cash two rounds of spades (if no honour drops, take a moment to think. Do you want to play for spades 3-3 or for 4-2 with QJxx in one hand?), play a club to the ten and run the jack of hearts. The goal is to take 4 spades, 3 clubs, a diamond and a heart.
If the club jack wins I don't know whether it is best to play a club to the queen, run the jack of hearts or even two rounds of spades followed by a small club. My gut feeling says that the jack of hearts is smart, since a club to the queen basically ruins our chances of making if North had ♣Kxxx and ducked.

[nullve]

Haven't analysed this in detail, but:

1. ruff
2. ♥K
Then if opps win and continue diamonds,
3. ruff
4. small heart

+ obvious stuff

[AL78]

Thanks for the responses. It was my relatively inexperienced partner that was put to the test on this hand, and she went down, although I'm not confident I would have done any better. It is a tough one due to the seven card trump fit, the lack of entries to dummy, and the risk of losing trump control after repeated diamond forces. I think I would have won the first trick with the ace and run the heart jack, then when getting in, play a low club to dummy or cash the top spades depending on what the jack lost too.

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As it happens the cards lie somewhat favourably. With the 3-3 trump break (which you don't initially know about), the risk of losing control is greatly reduced. The hearts lie nicely if you play them when in dummy. The actual play escapes me now but I have a feeling partner did run the club jack and North didn't duck.

The traveller was all over the place, so it was, in a sense, one of those RNG hands.

4♠W -1
1NT E =
2♠W =
2♥W =
2♠W +1
3♥W +1
3NT E +1
2♥W =
2♠W +1
3♠W +1
4♠W =
3♠W -1 (us)
2♠W =
2♥W =
2♠W +2