[ahydra]

"Good defence, nice spade switch." That's what I had to say to my opps after I went down in 3NT:

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(IMPs)

Lead was the H9, you play the 5 from dummy and North wins the King, then switches to the S3 (consistent with lowest from 10xx, 10xxx, Qxx, etc). How do you continue?

ahydra

[Lord Molyb]

Spoiler

rise with the king, ♣AK, diamond to queen to make sure I get entries to establish 5 clubs, 2 spades, 2 diamonds?

[ahydra]

Lord Molyb, on 2014-July-20, 23:10, said:

Spoiler

rise with the king, ♣AK, diamond to queen to make sure I get entries to establish 5 clubs, 2 spades, 2 diamonds?

That's what I tried at the table. South shows up with 4 clubs to the Q. North takes the DQ with the King and continues the S6, now what?

ahydra

[gszes]

It was indeed nice defense and a good spade switch:)

Spoiler

Opener could just as easily be Qxx(x) AKJxxx Kx(x) x as they
could Txx(x) AKJxxx Kx(x) x. There might be a very slight
tipping point that at unfavorable the latter might be
considered to be a weak 2 (max) by some but that is a
fairly small group especially opposite a non passed
partner. Using every diagnostic tool available will not
give you much more than a 50% guess. I would choose the
J merely because it seems unlikely opener would be dealt
the precise minimum for their known holding(s) (not much
to hang one's hat on I'm afraid).