[DavidKok]

...or to five, whichever is faster. A fun deal from yesterday, rotated to make you South:

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The opening shows a weak hand with exactly 5 spades and 4(+) cards in an undisclosed minor suit. Our 2NT is Lebensohl, asking partner to bid 3♣ with a normal takeout double, after which we can describe our hand (in this case by passing, showing a weak hand with clubs). Instead partner shows a strong hand by bidding game, and it's over to you to play it.

West leads the ♠Q, top of a sequence. Plan the play.

[DavidKok]

Not too much interest, I'll share some of the thoughts I had before playing to trick one.

We have two spades. West is marked with the ♠J on the lead so chances of scoring a third spade trick are really low.
We have two heart tricks. The suit is too anemic to set up a third trick, but we might have some squeeze options. East is marked with the heart length on the bidding.
Therefore we need five tricks in the minor suits. My plan is to get one trick in clubs and four in diamonds. Setting up the clubs instead is a long shot we almost always lose two or three club tricks (the only distributions where we don't is ♣AJ or Jx in one hand - note that the 3-2 clubs split implies that West's minor suit is diamonds). All the other times we lose the lead at least twice, playing on clubs. In particular the opponents can hold up - we can play clubs, force out the ace, maybe cash the remaining honour in dummy, possibly cross to the ♠K... and then need to lose the lead in clubs again. Therefore, playing on clubs wins in one of the following scenarios:

• The clubs split 3-2 with the jack being doubleton.
  
• The Ace is with West, so that after winning ♠A and playing ♣K for West's Ace, they cannot continue spades (or we'll establish the ♠T). Then, after heart return (likely best) we play a diamond to the jack. Since West is assumed to hold ♠QJ and ♣A, East must have the ♦A or West would open 1♠. East rises the ace, plays a spade, we win, play a club to free the suit, and have the ♦J as an entry. 9 tricks, right...? Nope! We concede ♦A, ♣AJ and three spades here, for down two. No dice.

So let's look into 4 diamond tricks and 1 club trick. Notice that our clubs analysis is contingent on West holding diamonds as a minor suit, or the clubs can't split 3-2. To establish diamonds, we can play for the suit to be 3-3 or for West to hold length. The idea is win trick 1 with the ♠A, play a diamond to the jack, won by West's ace, a heart return won by dummy, spade to the king, diamond finesse against the ten, cash the suit... and still we've only got 8 tricks - 2 spades, 2 hearts, 4 diamonds, 0 clubs. Once we lose the lead with the ♣K they have the rest of the spades, for ♦A, ♣A and 3 spade tricks. Note that we can't hold up in spades with ♠Ax in dummy - any duck will break our communication.

So close, but still not quite. Can you spot the flaw in this analysis, and find the winning line?

[pescetom]

It's hot here and envisioning NT is not my cup of tea, but I'm puzzled that you want to play spade to the king immediately after knocking out the diamonds ace. Might it not make sense to now knock out the clubs Ace too, playing ♣K (and Q if necessary)? East cannot (I think) take a second trick in the suit and now you we can take the probable hearts return with ♥K before playing spade to the king and running the four diamonds (with initial finesse if necessary).

[DavidKok]

Spot on! The layout we're playing for is something like

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The tricks are as follows:

• ♠Q-A-3-4
  
• ♦2-5-J-A
  
• ♥2-A-6-5
  
• ♣K-A-2-5
  
• ♠5-K-2-7
  
• ♦4-3-8-7

and now we cash the good heart, club and three more diamonds for 9 tricks. Simple, right? This was within what I saw before playing the ♠A. So let's get started - ace, small spade, small spade. Diamond, small, jack, small!?! The jack holds the second trick.

What's going on, and what can we do from here? Have we already messed up beyond repair?

[pescetom]

DavidKok, on 2025-August-02, 15:55, said:

• ♠Q-A-3-4
  
• ♦2-5-J-A
  
• ♥2-A-6-5
  
• ♣K-A-2-5
  
• ♠5-K-2-7
  
• ♦4-3-8-7

and now we cash the good heart, club and three more diamonds for 9 tricks. Simple, right? This was within what I saw before playing the ♠A.

Fine, that is exactly what I meant. As I read OP it suggested you would play to ♠K before neutralising the clubs, which looked wrong to me.

DavidKok, on 2025-August-02, 15:55, said:

So let's get started - ace, small spade, small spade. Diamond, small, jack, small!?! The jack holds the second trick.

What's going on, and what can we do from here? Have we already messed up beyond repair?

If West ducks the ♦J surely we can just continue with the 4 and finesse if necessary and continue in the suit until West does play the Ace.
The important thing is to gain control of diamonds and retain control of spades before conceding it in clubs, I think.

[DavidKok]

We resume a diamond on trick three. ♦4-6-8-A. East wins the trick(!) and returns the ♠5, and we can no longer make against best defence. Play the ♠K, and East retains a third spade. Whenever we lose the ♣A, regardless of who has it, the defence can catch 3 spades alongside their two minor suit aces. Play the ♠T and West can win and switch to a heart, and with our ♦J no longer in hand we have no way to reach the good ♠K - we take 1 spade, 2 hearts, 4 diamonds and 1 club for down one.

At the table I played the way you suggested - win the ♠A, diamond to the jack, pausing a little when it wasn't covered, diamond back to the 8 (to the surprise of West, who, only seeing dummy, expected me to play her for clubs). East won, played a spade up, and I plopped down the T hoping for a defensive error. West won and returned a spade, and I was home.

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What's interesting about the game is that, on this lead, we make against the actual distribution by knocking out the ace of clubs before tacking diamonds! East cannot profitably return clubs, and if we get a spade return we can play the ♠T from hand and retain the ♦J as a late entry for the good spade! This requires West to hold diamond length while East holds the ♦A, so I think it is against the odds, but I honestly admit that I only realised this after the play had concluded. This line works regardless of who has the ♣A, as long as the ♦A is with East. Conversely, our line works as long as West has the ♦A, regardless of who has the ♣A.

Quite a tough deal!