Minneapolis regional recap

So, as I fly back from Minneapolis and a long weekend to an unexpected place for a bridge tournament, I am pretty content. This probably was one of the smallest of the Memorial Day regionals but it was easy to get to, relatively cheap, and I can now say I've been to the Mall of America.

There were numerous interesting hands from the weekend. Here is one that I have pondered upon a lot.

JTxx
Q9xx
X
KTxx

AQx
Axx
AQx
A8xx

Matchpoints in the flight A barometer pairs, I was in 3NT after the following auction: 1C-1D-X-3D; 3NT-P-P-P.
I received a low diamond lead to the J and my Q. How would you play this?

There are a few options: heart toward dummy's Q; cross to dummy with a  club then take spade finesse(s); bang down A and Q to be sure you get your 3 spade tricks. Apparently I chose wrong by playing spades immediately and not taking the finesse. Righty won the 2nd spade as lefty discarded his lowest heart, playing udca, and led another diamond. I figured ducking wouldn't help and may prematurely squeeze dummy so I took the ace and cashed the 2 good spades. Lefty squirmed a bit but eventually parted with the heart ten and a low diamond. Now I had 3 spades, 2 diamonds, 2 clubs, and a heart, so to make my contract, I decided to cash my clubs and put lefty in with a club. He had 3 winners to take but had to lead from the heart king at trick 12. I was pleased, until insaw that we got a 1 out of 8 on the board. Once he pitches a diamond, I certainly should place ace and a heart toward the Q as all signs indicate lefty is down to KJ of hearts. That'll get me 3 heart tricks and 10 total. And it seems pretty tempting for lho
to discard a club from Jxx but tlhe did well to hold on to that half-stopper.

Plus, I suppose, many people would get a heart honor lead after a 2NT opening and stayman auction. That unveils the heart position sooner and lets me take the spade finesse without concern that i won't have an entry to dummy's last spade.

My most fun auction of the tournament was this afternoon playing with Todd Fisher. I held QJ98x, Txxx, Jx, xx in 4th seat.

1NT - X - 2S - X
3D - X - 4C - P
P - X - P - P
4D - X - P - P
4S - P - P - X
P - P - P

+1700 and win 17. Partner's hand: A, Kx, KQ9xxx, AQxx. It's too bad we doubled them in 2H vulnerable and let them make to give back 13 imps. I had a sure defense to best it one trick but decided partner must have the king of clubs in which case we could get it for 800. He had shown up with 10 points in the other suits and had made a takeout double of 2H which I converted. With Q in dummy and A in my hand, I played him to have the K and gave up a trick.