Your play for 9 tricks

[pclayton]

You end up in an inferior 3N instead of 4♠: [hv=n=saqthxxdak9xxcajt&s=sj8xxxhaxxdj8xxcx]133|200|[/hv]

 

LHO opens 1♥, pard dbls and RHO raises to 2♥.

 

LHO leads the K♥; RHO signals with the J. Plan the play for 9 tricks.

[mike777]

win the third heart and finesse the 9 of d, if it loses come back to hand and finesse spade?

[luke warm]

don't think it's gonna be all that easy coming back to your hand, mike... it looks to me like this is in trouble unless lho has ♠K doubleton on side

 

you can't lead the ♠J cause you'll block the suit with no entries.. so i guess i'd finesse the ♠Q, play the ace (dropping the king), lead the ♠10 to the jack, run the spades etc

[GaryFisch]

Duck 2 hearts, throw a club from dummy on the 3rd heart. Play a low spade to the Q. If that holds, cash the high diamonds. If diamonds are 2-2, come to hand with a diamond to the J, and repeat the spade finesse. If West has ♠Kxx, you can cash the spade A, cross to hand with the diamond 8, cash the spades, crossy to dummy with a club, and take the long diamond - 2 overtricks. Even if East has ducked in spades, you are in control with the club A still in dummy - but East should not duck (see below).

 

If diamonds are Qxx or longer, a lot depends on who has the long ones. If it's East, you can force out the diamond Q, win the club return, cross to hand with the diamond J, and take a second spade finesse for 9 tricks: 3 spades, 1 heart, 4 diamonds, and 1 club. If West has the long diamonds, you are reduced to cashing the spade A and hoping the K drops doubleton - a reasonable chance given that West started with 5 hearts and at least 3 diamonds.

 

If the spade finesse loses on the 1st round, East will surely return a club. That gives you a problem: You cannot force out the long diamond Q with East, since East can put West on lead with a club to cash the hearts. You will thus need a 2-2 diamond break (or singleton Q) to get home. Even if the spade K drops, that's only 8 tricks unless diamonds behave.

[pclayton]

I played it as Mike suggested; win the 3rd heart and hook the diamond. Perhaps running the J♦ is slightly better.

 

Here's my reasoning: Unless LHO has a slow club entry (KQx) and RHO has the K♠, I can get away with a safety in the diamond suit.

 

If LHO has QTx, he can foil this plan by 'splitting'. Would you find this play? It seems pretty tough to me, and it seemed better than just relying on diamonds 2-2 and the Kx of spades on my left.

 

Diamonds turned about to be 2-2, but clubs honors were split and the K♠ was onside (4th), so 9 tricks were pretty easy.