[sailoranch]

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Unfavorable at IMPs. The opponents are playing Landy. West leads the ♦Q, East playing an upside-down ♦5.

If you lead a club from hand,

Spoiler

West plays the ♣9.

[the hog]

How good are my opps? The 9 is a standard false card from J9xx

[sailoranch]

I'd assume the opponents are good, alert enough to falsecard.

[Phil]

the hog, on 2012-August-13, 00:56, said:

How good are my opps? The 9 is a standard false card from J9xx

Not when we lead low toward dummy. If were to play the King from hand, I would agree.

I think LHO is splitting clubs a lot of the time. It would be wrong to let us win a cheap trick with the T and come away with 1♦ + 3♣+ 3 (1 fast + 2 slow or 2 fast + 1 slow) tricks in the the majors.

I cannot tell with certainty what is happening in the diamond suit. LHO might have led from QJ2 or RHO might be discouraging from 52 or being cute with 9 or 852.

It seems wrong to play low to the ♣A. If RHO has the diamond length as I expect, I would tend to put him on shorter clubs. If I catch a singleton honor on my right, I'm playing for overtricks. Playing clubs early tends to confirm the King, so I don't think I am losing much even though weaker opponents won't place me with the K.

I'm inclined to win the ♣A and put the ♠J on the table. In most layouts, I need the spade hook to work anyway and RHO probably is not covering from Kxxx. If the ♠J gets covered, I will revert to clubs.

[sailoranch]

The best line I could come up with was to play ♠A and a spade toward the jack. We win immediately if West rises or the ten drops. If the jack holds, we can try clubs; otherwise, we still have a quick entry to pick up 3-3 spades.

Here's the actual lie:

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