Fast or slow death?

[Phil]

[hv=d=w&v=n&n=saj973h863d4cq953&s=sq2hj2dakt763cakt]133|200|Scoring: IMP

Pass - pass - 2H - 3D

All Pass[/hv]

 

1. ♥A, 3, 7, 2

2. ♥4, 6, Q, J

3. ♥K,....

 

Probable continuation:

You ruff with a middle diamond and LHO overruffs with the 8 and returns the ♠4

 

[MFA]

I would tend to go for the slow death, but table presence could mean something here.

[Free]

Ruffing is imo quite useless, ♠K is probably with East since he returned ♥K and not ♥T or ♥9. If that's the case, ♦QJ are probably in West's hand. So I'll discard my ♠ while I have control with dummy's small ♦. If West has ♦QJx he can ruff the 4th ♥ but it's in the air.

[rogerclee]

I would play the ♠A, but I agree that table feel is pretty important here. It would also be embarrassing to go down against ♦QJ8 on the left.

[hackenbush]

I finesse the spade return. ♥K is auto holding spade shortness. I assume LHO doesn't open ♠KTxxx-♥A4-♦QJxx-♣xx.

[Phil]

I rose with the Ace. Clubs didn't come home. Vulnerability affected my calculations here since if the spade lost, I'm very likely -200. Spade hook was on of course and RHO's carding partially seems to bear this out.

 

I spent a weekend thinking my opponents were smarter than they really were.