[han]

This is a hand from the senior Germany-Netherlands match on vugraph. I thought that declarer would make it but in fact they went down at both tables, shows what I know. Here are the hands:

Scoring: IMP

1D - (Dbl - 1S - (2H)
2S - (3H) - 4S - all pass

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Note that north is declarer. The bidding is identical at both tables and east leads a heart to west's king. Say you duck once to cut communications and west returns a heart.

You play a spade, west wins the ace and returns a spade, east following. How do you play now?

[nige1]

Board 15 in the European Seniors. In the England v France match,
England reached 3N which was not a success but
Stretz for France had no problems in 4♠

[awm]

This hand hinges around playing the diamonds. There are basically three lines:

1: Start with a diamond to queen. Works if 2-2 with ♦K onside or ♦K singleton onside.

2a: Start with diamond jack. Cover king with ace and plan to cash queen next.

2b: Start with diamond jack. If king covers and ♦9 or ♦T is played, finesse to 7 next.

Because of restricted choice, 2b is superior to 2a (two possible singletons versus one T9 tight).

Both lines 1 and 2b win in 4 of 16 cases. Without any additional information line 1 is a tiny bit better because 2-2 breaks are more likely than 3-1 breaks in a vacuum.

However, west made a takeout double and then raised 2♥ to 3♥. If ♥K was an honest card, he seems to be missing the ♥Q. And we need him not to hold both minor suit kings (else we have no real play). So this seems to imply that he has made a takeout double and raised partner's response to the three level on 11 hcp. He seems to have 3♠+4♥. This kind of bidding with 3433 distribution is awfully pushy, so I think we can rule out west holding ♦T9x (in fact, a singleton diamond is something of a favorite). So line 2b should be the winner here.

[gnasher]

Drawing trumps, then ace and another diamond works against
Axx KJxx Kx Kxxx   xx Qxxxx xx xxxx
Axx KJxx K Kxxxx   xx Qxxxx xxx xxx

Running ♦J (planning to take two finesses) works against
Axx KJxx 10 Kxxxx   xx Qxxxx K9x xxxx
Axx KJxx 9 Kxxxx    xx Qxxxx K10x xxxx
Axx KJxx K Kxxxx    xx Qxxxx xxx xxx

I'm not playing for diamonds 2-2 with the king onside - that would make West's 3♥ bid look too thin.

I think the simple line of running ♦J is better - East's bid looks more believable with a side king.

[han]

Both declarer's lead a diamond to the queen.