[kgr]

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Opps lead 3th/5th and Italian discards.
Do you agree with the play till now and how do you continue?
Is it best to play ♦A and ♦ now and how do you play ♣ then?

[fromageGB]

I would take a look at my other 6 cards before I made the opening lead.

[Antrax]

I'm not sure it's ethical to peek at a defender's hand to decide on which line to take.

[mikeh]

I agree with the play to date, and it seems obvious to continue with A and a diamond.

If we hook and it loses, back comes a diamond and we are stuck in our hand with only 1 trump left in either hand, so we can't afford to cross to dummy and lead the club J, intending, if covered, to hook the 9 coming back. Not that I'd ever do that! But if we lose the diamond hook, we need the club Q onside.

Meanwhile, if the diamond hook works, and we don't care about an overtrick, we don't need the play. A and a diamond endplays West...we claim.

So we play A and a diamond and (not surprisingly) East wins and leads a small club.

This is simple. Your play here doesn't matter unless you play high! Put in the 9. If covered by the 10, win and play to the J. Or, equally valid: put in the J, and if covered by the Q, win and play to the 9. There is zero difference between the 9 and the J in terms of which one to play 1st.

It is tougher at mp and toughest at BAM. If the diamond hook were to win, we'd virtually claim the overtrick since it is very unlikely that the multi opener held x AKxxxx Kxx Qxx or the like. But I doubt that West would switch to the diamond 8 at trick 2 with that hand. It would be a good psychological move against me, but few players see that deeply into a hand that early. I think he'd switch to a trump.

[kgr]

Thank you for the answer Mike. (I didn't understand the 2 previous posts and wondered what was wrong with OP. Your answer was a relief.)

 mikeh, on 2012-November-17, 14:39, said:

....
So we play A and a diamond and (not surprisingly) East wins and leads a small club.

This is simple. Your play here doesn't matter unless you play high! Put in the 9. If covered by the 10, win and play to the J. Or, equally valid: put in the J, and if covered by the Q, win and play to the 9. There is zero difference between the 9 and the J in terms of which one to play 1st.

Yes, that was a stupid question. (When posting I thought that I had to do this correct from the first time )

 mikeh, on 2012-November-17, 14:39, said:

It is tougher at mp and toughest at BAM. If the diamond hook were to win, we'd virtually claim the overtrick since it is very unlikely that the multi opener held x AKxxxx Kxx Qxx or the like. But I doubt that West would switch to the diamond 8 at trick 2 with that hand. It would be a good psychological move against me, but few players see that deeply into a hand that early. I think he'd switch to a trump.

It was MP's, but against Jack. I was almost sure that RHO had ♦K.

[Antrax]

 kgr, on 2012-November-18, 04:39, said:

Thank you for the answer Mike. (I didn't understand the 2 previous posts and wondered what was wrong with OP. Your answer was a relief.)

I think fromageGB thought this was a defensive problem from the E seat, so I tried to point out that's not the case. If I only added confusion, I apologize.

[kgr]

 Antrax, on 2012-November-18, 06:00, said:

I think fromageGB thought this was a defensive problem from the E seat, so I tried to point out that's not the case. If I only added confusion, I apologize.

That clarifies it, thanks.

[fromageGB]

Of course, I was trying to see if I agreed with the play in total, not just declarer's line!
So for a serious answer, I probably would have played A♦ rather than ♠9 on the previous round, but I don't suppose it matters. Mike's line, and I would play ♣9 on East's eventual lead, because it's much more satisfying for it to bring out the Q.