Fluffy, on 2013-July-17, 06:49, said:
winning ♥5 requires west with 4 clubs
Yes, but you can take your
♣ ruffs with the
♥T and
♥A, playing the
♥5 under an honour. Your
♥ tricks are 7 (trick 1), KQJ (later), and AT (to ruff
♣). All you need is for W to follow to the
♣AKQ.
If W has Kxxx of spades, this also works.
Win the lead with the 7
♣ to A
♠ finesse
♣ ruff low (requires W to have two
♣)
run the
♠Q
At this stage you know whether spades were 4-1 or not: if they were, take the
♠A, cash a high
♣ throwing a
♦. If this holds, you have:
You can score 5 more tricks on a high cross-ruff (and just lose a
♦ at the end).
If spades were 3-2, you need W to have 3 (otherwise he ruffs and plays a
♦). Here, you clear
♠, breathe a sigh of relief if you're not down, play
♣K ditching a
♦. You've got the same position as above, and once again you can cross-ruff high.
Both of these lines come to 7 trumps, 3 spades, two
♣. They rely on the
♠K onside (to 3 or 4 cards) and W having at least 3 clubs. If W has the singleton
♠K, you know about it early (good news) and can probably play him for
♣ length, so you cash
♣ winners then drop the
♦K on the established
♣. This makes when W is 1=5=3=4, with the
♠K, as you can strip him of black cards then cross-ruff high.