[han]

Here is a funny hand:

Scoring: XIMP

p-p-p-1H
p-2C-p-2D
p-3D-p-4H
all pass

---

The opponents drury themselves into 4H.

Right or wrong, you lead the diamond 7 against 4H. Dummy's queen slowly wins the first trick (uh oh). Declarer cashes the AK of trumps (partner's queen falling) and plays the diamond king, you winning the trick. What do you play now?

You don't know your partner, but you know declarer is not to be trusted.

[skjaeran]

If I play a low spade to partners king and get a spade back, declarer will manage to throw his remaining spade(s), if any, on dummys clubs before I can get on lead again. So that wont work. We'll score a ♠, a trump and a ♦.

So I need partner to hold the ♣A.
To make sure he know's what's up, I'll cash the ♠A and lead the ♣5 to his ace. A ♦ through lets me score the ♥10 for one down.

This whole thing seems silly, but that's the only conceivable way to beat it.

[the hog]

Th trump promotion seems right, as in the above post. play pd for the C ace. Nice as Skaeran says to cash SA first.

[han]

I made the big mistake of playing the club 10. Declarer played a low club from dummy and my partner played low.... arghh!

[mjcorey]

Hi everybody, I'm new to the forum.

Hannie's point about which club to lead is a good one, but I wonder if a couple of points have been missed.

Partner is marked with the AC; else declarer has 10 tricks by drawing the last trump.

The only diamond holding with which it makes sense for declarer to leave the trump out is Kxxx. If he has Kx he's a lunatic (for the T1 play), and even if he is, he might as well draw the trump, play to KD, presumably establishing diamonds, and then force an entry in clubs. If he has Kxx of diamonds, again it's suicidal to leave the trump out -- he has to figure your partner to have started with Axx of diamonds on the play.

Declarer is virtually marked with KS as well. If he lacked that card his auction would be absurd; also his only real hope would to be establish a minor before drawing trump, hoping the defenders would miss the dummy-tap.

In my opinion laying down AS is therefore incorrect. The only real hope for the defense is to play an appropriate club to partner's hand and hope for a spade return from QS.

[david_c]

[Edited numerous times, sorry]

It would certainly look a bit silly to cash the ♠A and then find partner did not have any more diamonds to lead.

I think we need to know what cards partner followed with in diamonds: that would at least distinguish declarer's Kxx (should cash ♠A) from Kxxx (should not cash ♠A). On the other hand, I wouldn't rule out declarer having Kx either, particularly if the first trick was slow.