Play safe like Fantoni

[semeai]

Here's a hand Fantoni played in the Spingold.

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sat975hkd6542cqj8&n=sk64hqt43dajcak64&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=ppp1c1d1hp1sp2dp2hp4sppp]266|200[/hv]

 

You probably don't need to understand your own bidding fully but to start 1C was 14+ clubs or 15+ balanced and 1H showed spades. East's 1D overcall was natural.

 

You're declarer in Fantoni's seat, North (sorry for keeping North declarer). West is Chip Martel and East is Lew Stansby. They play UDCA (and standard remainder count, but it doesn't come up here).

 

East leads the ♦K.

 

The play: (Always displayed in the order West North East South. The card led to the trick is underlined.)

 

W N E S

♦8 ♦A ♦K ♦2

♥7 ♥3 ♥A ♥K

♦9 ♦J ♦Q ♦4

♣2 ♠4 ♦10 ♦5

 

At this point Fantoni went into the tank. What's your plan now?

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sat975hd6cqj8&n=sk6hqt4dcak64]133|200[/hv]

[JLOGIC]

At first I was thinking of just ruffing it down, like HQ pitching club, heart ruff, club club winning in dummy, heart followed by diamond etc.

 

But if LHO is 4522 with RHO having a stiff honor, this loses. I suppose the H7 suggests a 5 card suit unless J987 if a true card (we can see after we play the HQ now), but Chip Martel is certainly capable of falsecarding his heart count, so I'd just go for that line.

[semeai]

At first I was thinking of just ruffing it down, like HQ pitching club, heart ruff, club club winning in dummy, heart followed by diamond etc.

 

This is the line he took, more or less. See hand 58 here.

 

As spoiled in the sub-title, anything worked on the actual hand.