your choice
N
North
♠
AKJ42
♥
KJ72
♦
AJ10
♣
Q
S
South
♠
Q
♥
96
♦
Q54
♣
K987632
Partner opens 1♠ and decides to raise your 1NT response to 3.
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
—
1♠
Pass
1NT
Pass
3NT
All Pass
LHO leads ♥ 5, you play small and RHO wins the Ten. He now plays Ace and another club.
What do you do? You can play ♣ K and go after ♦ finesse, making whenever it works (plus spades break) and pretty much going down when it doesn’t. Or you can setup ♣ hoping to guess ♥ if you happen to lose a ♣ to LHO (and hope that RHO didn’t start with AQT).
What’s your choice?
1+
There is really no guess in hearts. Assuming 2/4 leads, either both in or both off. Diamond finesse looks like mandatory for success of contract. If west wins a club, a diamond back and if east wins the next club, a heart to ace and diamond back. Additionally, diamond finesse may be right and we may end up losing 3 hearts and 2 clubs. So, I will opt for diamond finesse and spades behaving…
Good point, I missed the diamond return option for west on the table.
Unless east has both 3rd club and heart ace and hence no entry to west to attack diamonds.