[kayin801]

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Last board before halftime in the Mini-Spin I. My partner (sohcahtoa) got this right at the table to win 10 imps. We only won this match by 5, so you better make it!

Play goes as follows (you can agree or disagree with it so far if you want): LHO leads ♦ A and another ♦. RHO follows to the first diamond and pitches the ♠K at trick 2. You win in dummy and lead a club to the J and Q, and LHO leads his last diamond, RHO pitching a middle-ish spade spot. After winning in dummy again you lead another club and the ♣K pops up. Go from here. (yes, clubs are 4=2)

[johnu]

Spoiler

After winning ♣A, ♣10, ruffing a club, crossing to ♠A, and cashing the last club, you have

♠---
♥A109
♦K
♣--


♠92
♥Q
♦J
♣--

If east started with ♠KQJ10 or 7 spades and the ♥KJ(x)(x), he has to keep 2 spades or you can ruff a spade and set up the 9, and 3 hearts to the KJ or you can ruff a heart to set up the hearts.

So, did East start with

♠KQJxxxx
♥KJx
♦x
♣Kx

or

♠KQJxxx
♥KJxx
♦x
♣Kx

although I suppose east could also have been 5-5-1-2, but then west didn't raise with 4-2-3-4 with an ace, queen and possibly useful doubleton, so I think that is unlikely.

Did west really lead a diamond from A10x or A109 or did east have a singleton 10? If east had a singleton honor, that would be a disaster of a lead. It would be nice to know the spots. If east had 7 spades, why wouldn't west have lead a doubleton spade hoping for a possible spade trick or possible overruff. If east had 6 spades, would west have raised spades with 3 small trumps and an outside ace and queen, 3-3-3-4. I would like to see the cards from both east and west on the clubs.

I think most easts in this event will have KQJ10 for the spade discard at trick 2, so if 2 of the spade honors are still out, I would play ace and ruff a heart hoping to ruff out the king. I assume on the spade play off dummy, east split honors. If east is clever, they will pitch another spade honor on the clubs, giving you a choice. Without any other information about discards, I'll probably play east for 6-4-1-2 which is the likeliest distribution and gives west a hand that makes the lead of the ♦A more probable.