Situation: BBO Tuesday night tournament
Scoring: Imp pairs
Tables: 6

I was West, Frazer (minimonkey) was East.

Now first question, what do you lead from West? (Don't look at dummy yet )

I chose the ten of spades, not sure if this is best lead but i thought it reasonable. Trick 1 S 10 2 A K

Frazer returned a small spade which i promptly ruffed with the 6 of hearts. Trick 2 S 4 9 6H 3

Now i don't really know, but my reasoning was to remove dummy's entries to the spades, so started with the K of D. Trick 3 D K A 2 8

Declarer started playing out hearts - Trick 4 H 3 7 J Q

At this point i thought it fair to continue the situation by playing a club trying to force the Queen out. Trick 5 C J 8 A K Was this right?

Frazer returned a spade which i overruffed the king with my ace. Another club was then played by myself but should i have cashed the Queen of diamonds to actually set the contract before playing the first club? As it happens the contract still went 1 off due to Frazer's trump holding.

I did not cash the queen through the following reasoning:

1. I thought the only danger of not putting contract off was if declarer had started with a doubleton diamond then it is easy for him to discard his diamonds on the spades. However if this is the case then Frazer has a singleton club which i can surely give him a ruff by playing the club first.

2. If i can get Frazer in in clubs then i can perhaps pick up the entire diamond suit if Frazer holds the 9. If he does not hold the 9 and gives me a diamond through then no harm is really done.

Does this reasoning make sense? I think I've missed out some of my reasoning which can be added in later. Please give me your views on whether i should just put the contract down or not?

Thanks for any replies

We were unaware of the trump legnth, it didnt have to be 6 This really iswhat makes all the differnce on the hand i think.

Actually i asked him if it was at least 6 and he said yes. Hence why i included it.

well done Phil, this is the sort of thing we are looking for! I am off for a weeks holidayin a couple of hours, but thought I would reply to this asap.
Firstly, why am I defending 2Hs? What happened to the C overcall? I know there will be hands where this can go horribly wrong, but you do have an opener,+6-card suit + singlton S.If bidding goes 1H-2C-x-what is xx from partner? Heard of Rosencrantz?
As to defence, I would have lead C 10S may have been setting up S in dummy. As to wheather or not to cash, it depends on scoring. At imps I would cash in case something goes wrong, at pairs, if you can suss that3c makes, then you must try and put 2 down.
Hope this helps back on 4th March seeyou at Dumfries.
By the way, how's about 4 days of trials starting 26th June, lets give Alex a day off! ? In Glasgow and we can sort out who can put who up later.

I see your point Catherine but I generally do not like overcalling on such suits when vulnerable. I know my hearts are well placed and the singleton spade is a plus but I'm still not really happy about even contemplating an overcall there vulnerable. I don't like getting slaughtered due to dodgy overcalls and thought this was just one step better than JJP's pet hate of 5 card suits being overcalled just because they have a 14 count.

Have a nice holiday Boss

I start work on the 27th June so no chance I could make those dates I'm afraid.