I'm actually wondering about the heart finesse. Sure, it's the best play in hearts and in this case we even have a way to handle 4-1. But if the heart finesse fails, we're down with a club switch. We're not in time to play a diamond to the queen even if East has AK. Assuming east has AK of diamonds, he should be able to work out to switch to clubs given the lead and dummy (where else is the 4th trick coming from?). The alternative way to play the hand is to play hK and then hA, if the Q doesn't drop, play for ♦AK onside, which, given the lead, is probably a little better than 25% chance. Seems awfully close, but given that we can't always execute the trump coup (if west had a diamond more for example) while with the dAK onside we can still pick up the 4-1 trump breaks, I would actually think the heart finesse is slightly inferior to taking the ♥AK line.
happy new year to you too 😅
I much prefer you alone. So calm and clear. you are so frenetic on Wednesdays
I'm actually wondering about the heart finesse. Sure, it's the best play in hearts and in this case we even have a way to handle 4-1. But if the heart finesse fails, we're down with a club switch. We're not in time to play a diamond to the queen even if East has AK. Assuming east has AK of diamonds, he should be able to work out to switch to clubs given the lead and dummy (where else is the 4th trick coming from?). The alternative way to play the hand is to play hK and then hA, if the Q doesn't drop, play for ♦AK onside, which, given the lead, is probably a little better than 25% chance. Seems awfully close, but given that we can't always execute the trump coup (if west had a diamond more for example) while with the dAK onside we can still pick up the 4-1 trump breaks, I would actually think the heart finesse is slightly inferior to taking the ♥AK line.
Very helpful