[smerriman]

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Lead is the diamond 2.

Whatever number of NT you decide to play in (would you bid 4 as North?), this is MP and you just need to cash the seemingly inevitable 10 tricks.

I somehow only managed 9.. is there an easy route to avoid mistakes?

[edit] I should say, South's bidding was actually a robot, so don't be too harsh The play's the thing.

[mikeh]

 smerriman, on 2022-August-27, 14:36, said:

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Lead is the diamond 2.

Whatever number of NT you decide to play in (would you bid 4 as North?), this is MP and you just need to cash the seemingly inevitable 10 tricks.

I somehow only managed 9.. is there an easy route to avoid mistakes?

[edit] I should say, South's bidding was actually a robot, so don't be too harsh The play's the thing.

I don’t think that one can safely say that winning only 9 tricks proves one made a ‘mistake’

There’s a lot going on here, including but far from limited to:

LHO’s leading tendencies, especially from xxxx (as opposed to Jxxx)

How clubs split. Not merely whether they are 3-2 but also is the A doubleton or triplton?

How good are the defenders? On some lines, the key is when the opps knock out the heart Ace…but why would they assume I held the stiff Ace? (I can think of reasons, btw)

Thus even the play at trick one isn’t simple…but it may well prove committal. Is it a ‘mistake’ to play the 10? Not exactly clear…it’s definite mistake if RHO has the Jack😀

[LBengtsson]

Interesting hand. 4-3 split in ♥ 62%. 3-2 split in ♣68%. I would play ♦Q first trick. Then play on ♣ suit with two entries to the South hand.

You are left ending

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Play a ♠ and you will get 2 more tricks. If ♣ suit does not break 3-2 then I am in deep...

[smerriman]

The 2 would be led from both xxxx and Jxxx, so unfortunately there's not too much in terms of inferences there.

East does show up with the Axxx of clubs though (edit - specifically, A963, which could be relevant when the T drops) which definitely complicates things. It felt like one of those hands where even if you cut off your own entries, the opponents are probably going to have to put you in somewhere given you have tricks in all 4 suits, but maybe it's not so easy after all..