eagles123, on 2021-April-23, 07:14, said:
duck the first spade, assume a spade back, win, Q diamond losing to K. win third spade. Run diamonds pitching club and heart. Heart to the 9.
So when south wins the heart with the 10 or the Jack, he can safely play clubs no matter what his holding. Of course, how problematic that is depends on how the cards lie and how they’ve defended.
In fairness, I’m not sure how I’d play this hand. I do think that one can win the first spade. We infer that they are 4-3 so we can duck later if need be.
Then I lead the diamond Queen. If North covers, I’ll run the 9 next. As it happens, we know south wins. He’s always returning a spade and now I duck. I win the 3rd round and run the diamonds, paying attention to their carding.
How I play then depends on what I’ve seen and, to some degree, my view of how good the defenders are
The main plan is the simple one of taking the heart hook but I’m not committing to anything until I’ve seen 8 of their cards.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari