Posted 2015-June-15, 12:33
More tricks are lost by giving away this sort of club holding than are ever lost by adopting the policy that 'when in doubt, duck smoothly'.
Ducking without a full analysis of the hand can end up being 'wrong', but there are going to be many situations in which giving away one's holding, by hesitating is going to be costly. It is best to try to slow down at trick one and anticipate the play. For example, here it should be obvious that declarer may well lead a club at trick 2, and one should not let declarer turn over the spade K until we have thought about the hand.
As for what I would do: I would duck and let declarer give me more insight into his hand.
Thus, if he pushed another club from dummy, he will hold Qxx and by holding off until the 3rd round, I let partner give me info. For example, if partner holds 97xx AJ109 Axx xx, he pitches a discouraging diamond.
There are too many permutations to set out in advance what I would do if he plays something other than a club. I would pop the spade, of course, if he plays low back to his presumed 9x in the suit, which he almost certainly wouldn't do if he has Qxx in clubs. And I'd pretty much have to play a top of nothing heart: partner will certainly infer the club A, so the defence should be virtually double dummy thereafter.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari