Safety play?

I haven't had much time lately to post new messages, but I've finally found a moment to write something. It's about a hand I played yesterday:

Dealer: South Vul: EW Scoring: imps	♠ 8 ♥ KQ94 ♦ T7 ♣ QJ9873
♠ K762 ♥ T753 ♦ KJ2 ♣ T4		♠ QT5 ♥ AJ862 ♦ A93 ♣ K6
	♠ AJ943 ♥ - ♦ Q8654 ♣ A52

Playing with my fantunes-partner against a pair who plays a very similar system, the auction went:
2♠! - pass - pass - Dbl
pass - 2NT! - pass - 3♣!
pass - 3♥ - pass - pass
pass

2♠ shows 10-13HCP with 5+♠, unbalanced.
2NT was Lebensohl.

My partner lead ♣Q to dummy's King and my Ace. After some thought I returned ♣ to my partner's Jack, who switched to ♠8. Dummy played low and so did I, LHO taking with his ♠K. Now it was his turn to make the best out of it. There's no way he can make the contract (thanks to the auction he knows that ♠s don't behave), so it's damage control: ♦Q better be onside, and there's a sure ♥ loser. Better not make that 2!

It basically comes to this: what is the safest line of play for 1 loser with following holding:
AJ862
T753

You think you know it? Ok, read on then.

At the table, LHO played ♥A, completely ruining his chances for one down. I checked with "suitplay" to figure out if there isn't a better way here, because the J, T, 8, 7 and 6 are all great cards. Suitplay proved me right: it says that you should start with ♥5 and just cover anything LHO (North here) plays! If it loses, you should finesse again.

This is a remarkable different line from when you have AJxxx and Kxxx, so these middle cards are really worth something.

On the current layout, this line of play would've succeeded. There's a clue however that finessing twice is probably better: with my opening bid of 2♠, I told everyone I have 10-13HCP. West knew about ♠AJ and ♣A, it's impossible for me to hold ♥KQ. It is possible however that I have a void, in which case you better finesse.

If you want ♦Q to be onside, I can only have ♥Q as well. This implies that if West would lose his ♥ finesse to the King, he knows the location of ♦Q as well.

Too late

Here's one I messed up last week:

Dealer: East Vul: EW Scoring: imps	♠ K5 ♥ Txxxx ♦ K9xx ♣ xx
♠ Jxx ♥ QJx ♦ xxxx ♣ Txx		♠ AQTx ♥ AKxx ♦ QJxx ♣ Q
	♠ 9732 ♥ x ♦ A ♣ AKJ9xxx

The auction went (I was very cautious here):
1♦ - 2♣ - pass - pass
Dbl - 3♣ - pass - pass
pass

LHO started with a small ♦ to the J and my Ace. I played a low ♠, LHO played the 4, the K in dummy to RHO's Ace. While she was thinking about what to play next, I realised I missed an extra opportunity here. She switched to ♣Q for my Ace, and I continued ♠ to LHO's Jack. He played a ♣ as fast as he could, and I went -1.

What went wrong? Double dummy, nothing went wrong, I simply can't make it. However, if I played ♠5 in trick 2 (and not the K), I can bring RHO on lead later on, who will have a hard time underleading ♥A (probably holding the K or Q as well). This way I improve my chances if RHO has only 1 ♣ (which you actually have to hope for). I guess I was just hoping too much on a defensive error or luck in ♠...

Nice one for the defense

Friday we encountered a nice hand, but opponents fell asleep. Put yourself in their shoes.

You hold:
♠ Kxxxx
♥ Kx
♦ Jxx
♣ xxx

Everyone Vulnerable, your partner opens 1♣, RHO (= me) intervenes 1NT, and everyone passes.

What do you lead?

The player at the table started with a low ♠ which worked out the best possible way, but they didn't realise it. In dummy you get:
♠ Txx
♥ Q9xx
♦ Q9xx
♣ Tx

Partner takes ♠A, continues with the ♠Q and a small ♠ to your K. Declarer discards ♥T. You continue with 2 more ♠s. Partner asks for a ♣ switch (playing Odd/Even signals, he plays ♣5 and discards ♦T), while declarer throws away a ♦ and a ♥ from dummy while discarding a ♣ and a small ♥ from his hand.

Your turn again: what do you play?

At the table, a ♣ was played and I claimed 7 tricks.

Here's the full deal:

Dealer: East Vul: Both Scoring: MP	♠ Txx ♥ Q9xx ♦ Q9xx ♣ Tx
♠ Kxxxx ♥ Kx ♦ Jxx ♣ xxx		♠ AQx ♥ Jxxx ♦ T ♣ AQxxx
	♠ Jx ♥ ATx ♦ AK8xx ♣ KJx

I got triple squeezed on the 5th ♠, so I had to bare my ♥A (baring ♣K would be a disaster, and discarding a ♦ is throwing my 7th trick away).

How could West know what to do? Well, it's pretty simple imo. I don't discard any ♦ in my hand, so I must have 5 of them. With 4 I would keep them in dummy and discard one from my hand. I showed 2 ♠s, I must have 3-4♥s and 2-3♣s. Either I have ♣Ax and ♥ATxx, or ♣Kxx and ♥ATx. Looking at my discarding, I think it's clear that I only have 3 ♥s (the unblocking T at first opportunity), a 5332 is more likely to overcall 1NT rather than a 5422 with a good 5 card suit, so the best chance for defeating the contract should be to play a low ♥ from Kx and hope your partner has ♣A. Another clue that might strengthen this idea is that partner would probably act with a good 6 card ♣ (AQJ9xx or KQJ9xx is good enough to either double or rebid the suit), so he'll only have 5 of them.