[Phil]

Scoring: MP

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1♠ - 1N - 2♠ - 3♠ - 4♠

Pard leads the ♥4 (4th) and your Ace drops declarer's K. Over to you.

[awm]

I'd just continue hearts. If partner has something like ♠Qxxx and club ace, this might even beat the hand.

It's certainly possible that we need to switch to diamonds in order to get our diamond tricks, but I don't see a compelling reason that this is more likely than the above construction.

[sathyab]

I'm switching to a ♦. If declarer's trumps are only as good as AJTxxx, the danger is that declarer may have ♣Axx. Partner has to cash out in this situation when he gets his last trump trick instead of continuing a forcing defense then. But alternatively if declarer's trumps are really good, he may pull trumps and KO partner's club stopper when he still has the ♦K entry.

[Fluffy]

Even if declarer has ♦AJ9x diamond return doesn't cost a trick since he can discard at least 1 diamond in dummy's clubs whatever he's got.

I said the above just so this is not a 1 liner post, because I thinkadam and sathy said almost everythng already. I would lead a heart at the table, but feel inclined to lead a diamond because it is a problem.

[Codo]

on-liner: Agree with Gonzalo

[Phil]

The tap was best by a mile. Declarer held: QJT9xx, K, AJxx, Qx.

I shifted to a diamond. I needed to think about this more.

[sathyab]

Phil, on Mar 5 2009, 11:18 PM, said:

The tap was best by a mile. Declarer held: QJT9xx, K, AJxx, Qx.

I shifted to a diamond. I needed to think about this more.

This hand is nearly the same strength and shape I had in mind for the ♦ shift, ♠AQJxxx ♥K ♦Jxxx ♣Qx. But I think the hand declarer actually held looks like a better one to accept the invite than the one I imagined, as ♦Jxxx could easily be weak point. A lot of players would bid 4♠ with ♠QJTxxx ♥K ♦AJxx ♣Qx, but not sure how many would pass with ♠AQJxxx ♥K ♦Jxxx ♣Qx.