simple or not?

[flytoox]

Playing 15-17NT. you opened 1N with the following hand and all passed. Left hand leads S2 and RHO plays SJ.

 

How do you plan the play?

 

Do you try to steal a heart trick immediately or cashing clubs to give opps pressure?

 

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[the hog]

C to the K and a low H.

[Hanoi5]

Yeah, clubs first. I'll discard spades from the table.

 

C to the K and a low H.

 

That sounds fine too but what if they figure I have the clubs?

[Codo]

All Clubs first, discarding a diamond and a spade

[Fluffy]

I won't risk going 3 down at any form of scoring, all clubs first

[hrothgar]

C to the K and a low H.

Is it really right to cash the first Club before running a heart?

 

Lets assume that LHO has the Ace of Hearts

LHO needs to get into RHO's hand so RHO can punch through a Spade.

 

If you cash the King of Clubs, LHO will know to switch to a Diamond when he gets in with the Ace of Heart. If you lead a Heart immediately, LHO might be on a guess and not know whether he should switch to a Club or a Diamond.

 

YES, RHO should probably have some way to signal suit preference on the first Heart trick, however, people screw these things up all the time... (I certainly do)

[Simplicity]

I think there are a few factors to this deal like how good the opponents are, what the state of the match is, the form of scoring and the vulnerability.

 

I have to say non-vul at imps and rubber id probably just put a heart on the table straight after winning the ♠K. LHO isn't in practice going to fly ace and play a diamond here, so that looks like a 50% make while playing clubs just looks like 1 off.

 

At mps or vul im not going 3 off when i had 6 cashers it just doesnt seem worth it.

[Apollo81]

I'd lead a heart to the ♥Q. This is virtually guaranteed to work if LHO has the Ace, as he won't want to win the trick. Club to ♣K first gives both opponents the chance to figure out what's going on before either has to make the critical play.

[Jlall]

Do they play 4th best or att?

Is it MP or imps?

Are we vul or not?

 

These are all factors in the decision, but its hard for me to imagine not playing a heart to the queen

[655321]

I would play a heart at trick 2, not sure which heart though.

 

Heart to the Q looks more normal, and as mentioned by others it is likely to get past the Ace if LHO holds it. I am tempted to play the ♥K though. ♥K will sometimes be ducked by RHO (more often than a heart to the Queen, anyway), and with luck the defenders will think I am trying to create an entry to dummy. The only reason for trying to get to dummy would be to play diamonds, and therefore they might switch to clubs instead of diamonds.

 

But that is all a bit vague, and probably I would just play a heart to the Queen.