KingCovert

This is the wrong vulnerability for partner to be sacrificing. Your partner has taken the position that 5D has real play, it must make or go down 1. I'd make the following assumptions: Partner has a full opener, thus allowing them to count most of the HCP. Partner has a spade void, thus giving 5D real play and making the push into 5S a potentially lethal one. (Partner has good reason to expect the break is bad after all.) If the previous two are true, partner is probably bidding 5D with well positioned clubs. Otherwise how does 5D have any play? This is enough for me to lead clubs. But at this point, I'm really not certain that partner has any more than 7 diamonds headed by the AKQ. But, the opponents aren't playing 6S for a reason... If North has a diamond void, solid clubs, and let's be honest, knows that hearts are playing well.... What's there to think about? Something has to give. I'm leading my singleton club, because partner won't play me for it if I don't, and if we're not defeating 5S on a club lead, I need a new partner.

It depends on your perspective, but I don't agree with this advice. If you goal is to make two tricks, why take a finesse for the jack that is twice as likely to fail? Either finesse works when both honours are onside, and both finesses fail when both honours are offside, so these are irrelevant cases, but if you're playing for two tricks, why take a finesse that loses to the onside King and offside Jack when you don't need to pick up the jack? If the finesse of the King fails, you can always finesse the Jack on round 2. If it fails, then it's inconsequential, all lines of play fail... Except for an end-play in the suit, which seems like the best line to play for....

Honestly, I was somewhat torn on this... It seems like a really solid game to me. Your partner has to hold some pretty nice cards to have a limit raise, there aren't many cards that you could consider wasted values across from your hand. Your opponents will often get the lead wrong on this hand even when double dummy it's an unmake-able. That spade suit on the side is a HUGE asset, after all, you know your partner has no more than a doubleton, and you've got AKJ. So... I went and did a small scale analysis on this, because it was too tempting to pass up. I created 100 hands fixing the provided hand and randomly generating the rest of the hands assuming that our partner has 10-11, 0-2 spades, 4-5 hearts, and 3+ of each minor. The results were about as expected I'd say. Again, this assumes perfect play. Making 6H: 1 Making 5H: 5 Making 4H: 16 Making 3H: 25 Making 2H: 3 Pass: (3x-50) + (25*140) + (16*170) + (5*200) + (1*230) = 7300 4H: (3x-100) + (25*-50) + (16*420) + (5*450) + (1*480) = 7900 Truly a coin toss... Although again, this assumes perfect defense. I guess the question is, how much do you respect your opponents?