[kgr]

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LHO showed long Hearts.
LHO leads ♥K and RHO overtakes with the A and returns ♥7.
LHO now plays ♠2 and you play another ♠ and see that spades are 1-4.
You play another round of ♠:
(bold=card winning the trick; underline= South)
♥K-♥3-♥A-♥6
♥7-♥8-♥9-♥5
♠2-♠3-♠6-♠J
♠A-♥2-♠7-♠4
♠5-♥4-♠Q-♠8

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How do you continue?

[kgr]

Any intermediate/advanced or expert wants to comment on the play?
(Don't like zero replies )

[Antrax]

I know how I would play, but it seems simple enough that it's probably wrong.

Spoiler

Finesse in ♦, both defenders had plenty of chances to lead a ♦ singleton. It loses to LHO, wins his return (ruffing if needed), draw the last trump and run the minor-suit winners. I would suggest to take care to unblock ♦ but you still have a club entry

[FrancesHinden]

I'm not convinced that this is 'novice and beginner' material.

I would not have drawn the third round of trumps.
The danger to your contract is that LHO has Qxx diamonds and you lose both a diamond trick and a ruff.
If LHO has Qxxx diamonds I will go off.
So after two rounds of trumps ending in dummy (if they are 3-2 I was planning to draw the third round) a diamond towards hand; I'm assuming RHO follows.
When the diamond wins, I would play a third trump to dummy and lead the diamond 10 towards hand. If RHO follows to this I win and knock out the queen of diamonds (unless they turned out to be 4-0 onside in which case I take diamond finesses). If he ruffs the second diamond I play low, but now I will not lose to the queen of diamonds. Whatever happens next I have club communication to draw the last trump.

What I must not do is take a first round diamond finesse (in case it loses and a diamond ruff comes back), or to cash both the AK of diamonds from hand (in case RHO ruffs the second diamond and I still have a diamond loser).

[kgr]

FrancesHinden, on 2012-December-31, 18:22, said:

I'm not convinced that this is 'novice and beginner' material.

I would not have drawn the third round of trumps.
The danger to your contract is that LHO has Qxx diamonds and you lose both a diamond trick and a ruff.
If LHO has Qxxx diamonds I will go off.
So after two rounds of trumps ending in dummy (if they are 3-2 I was planning to draw the third round) a diamond towards hand; I'm assuming RHO follows.
When the diamond wins, I would play a third trump to dummy and lead the diamond 10 towards hand. If RHO follows to this I win and knock out the queen of diamonds (unless they turned out to be 4-0 onside in which case I take diamond finesses). If he ruffs the second diamond I play low, but now I will not lose to the queen of diamonds. Whatever happens next I have club communication to draw the last trump.

What I must not do is take a first round diamond finesse (in case it loses and a diamond ruff comes back), or to cash both the AK of diamonds from hand (in case RHO ruffs the second diamond and I still have a diamond loser).

LHO had ♦Qxx.
I forced the 3th ♠ round to make the problem more interesting
The hand then has in it: trump-control, avoiding a ruff of a good ♦ and unblocking in ♦
(It certainly is not 'novice and beginner' material at the table and probably is difficult enough for int/adv as a problem)

[FrancesHinden]

kgr, on 2013-January-01, 03:30, said:

LHO had ♦Qxx.
I forced the 3th ♠ round to make the problem more interesting
The hand then has in it: trump-control, avoiding a ruff of a good ♦ and unblocking in ♦
(It certainly is not 'novice and beginner' material at the table and probably is difficult enough for int/adv as a problem)

I think you mean not unblocking in diamonds.
If you start the diamond suit with the jack to the ace and LHO shows out, then you have just given up on an overtrick that was rightfully yours.
OK, it's not very likely that LHO has 1 spade and 0 diamonds, but purely as a matter of technique there is no benefit to starting with a high diamond.

[kgr]

FrancesHinden, on 2013-January-01, 04:24, said:

I think you mean not unblocking in diamonds.
If you start the diamond suit with the jack to the ace and LHO shows out, then you have just given up on an overtrick that was rightfully yours.
OK, it's not very likely that LHO has 1 spade and 0 diamonds, but purely as a matter of technique there is no benefit to starting with a high diamond.

The 3rd ♠ was not best, but having played 3 rounds of Spade giving the end position like in the OP, shouldn't you play a high ♦:
If you play a low Diamond to the A, cross to dummy in Clubs and play Diamond, RHO discarding then this remains after playing D for LHO DQ:
K=v=J=J7 * T=v=65=A
LHO returns Club and you still have to loose a Club.