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IMP/teams, both nv,
Opponents play natural 5 card majors, strong 1NT.
What is your defense plan?
How do you execute it?
Extra note: I will post dummy tomorrow so people get to think about opening lead first.
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What is your defensive plan?
#1
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Posted 2015-February-27, 16:52
32 board league match, First half of the last match where you are playing for 3rd place. 1st and 2nd places are outside reach when they played a rescheduled match on Wednesday. (I was just kibitzing after I played for the winning team)
IMP/teams, both nv,
Opponents play natural 5 card majors, strong 1NT.
What is your defense plan?
How do you execute it?
Extra note: I will post dummy tomorrow so people get to think about opening lead first.
IMP/teams, both nv,
Opponents play natural 5 card majors, strong 1NT.
What is your defense plan?
How do you execute it?
Extra note: I will post dummy tomorrow so people get to think about opening lead first.
#2
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Posted 2015-February-27, 16:56
I generally lead the spade ace in this type of situation. The easiest way to set it is to find pard with a stiff spade, and depending on what comes down in dummy, I will go with that plan.
#3
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Posted 2015-February-27, 17:37
I think this is an interesting question. Initially I was thinking of the arguments for and against the spade A and the diamond, but have come around to thinking that the club Ace is a very real possibility as well.
The diamond has the attraction of simplicity. Give partner a red Ace and we win.
Otoh, it is the one lead most likely to lead to overtricks when we lose a tempo (they have long, solid diamonds) or lose both a tempo and a trick....dummy is KQxxx and declarer A10x.
The Spade A seems to allow us two chances....either partner has a stiff or we get to hold the lead and switch.
I think the first is an illusion most times. LHO shows long trump....often (usually?) 5+...and so we are playing partner to be 1-1 in the majors. A priori unlikely. Even when partner has a stiff, we may not be able to read it, depending on the spots and declarer understanding how to falsecard.
More to the point, there are some holdings on which we are entitled to 2 spade tricks so long as we don't lead the suit. Give partner Qx(x) and declarer the Kx(x) and give partner a side entry.
Meanwhile, a club allows us to look at dummy, just as does a spade. It is admittedly almost never catching a stiff in partner's hand...if he has a stiff club and short hearts, he was bidding 4♠ unless he has 7+ diamonds...and he is a passed hand. We are less likely to have 2 club tricks than we are to have 2 spade tricks, unless he has the K, since we lack any secondary honours.
A perfect world has him winning the 2nd club and switching to a spade through declarer's King.
I can't estimate the various probabilities with any semblance of precision, so I will go with the simplest approach...hoping partner has a red Ace, or that declarer simply can't get to 10 tricks before we get to 4....I lead the diamond.
Btw, I would expect that most people who play bridge (not the same as most bridge players) would lead the stiff...it is the beginner's lead....so, and without casting aspersions on the OP at all I expect this lead to have failed at the table. Given that this was posted as a problem, I suspect a black Ace worked best..tho which one is a mystery to me at present.
The diamond has the attraction of simplicity. Give partner a red Ace and we win.
Otoh, it is the one lead most likely to lead to overtricks when we lose a tempo (they have long, solid diamonds) or lose both a tempo and a trick....dummy is KQxxx and declarer A10x.
The Spade A seems to allow us two chances....either partner has a stiff or we get to hold the lead and switch.
I think the first is an illusion most times. LHO shows long trump....often (usually?) 5+...and so we are playing partner to be 1-1 in the majors. A priori unlikely. Even when partner has a stiff, we may not be able to read it, depending on the spots and declarer understanding how to falsecard.
More to the point, there are some holdings on which we are entitled to 2 spade tricks so long as we don't lead the suit. Give partner Qx(x) and declarer the Kx(x) and give partner a side entry.
Meanwhile, a club allows us to look at dummy, just as does a spade. It is admittedly almost never catching a stiff in partner's hand...if he has a stiff club and short hearts, he was bidding 4♠ unless he has 7+ diamonds...and he is a passed hand. We are less likely to have 2 club tricks than we are to have 2 spade tricks, unless he has the K, since we lack any secondary honours.
A perfect world has him winning the 2nd club and switching to a spade through declarer's King.
I can't estimate the various probabilities with any semblance of precision, so I will go with the simplest approach...hoping partner has a red Ace, or that declarer simply can't get to 10 tricks before we get to 4....I lead the diamond.
Btw, I would expect that most people who play bridge (not the same as most bridge players) would lead the stiff...it is the beginner's lead....so, and without casting aspersions on the OP at all I expect this lead to have failed at the table. Given that this was posted as a problem, I suspect a black Ace worked best..tho which one is a mystery to me at present.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
#4
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Posted 2015-February-27, 18:04
Hats off to MIKEH for another excellent presentation of why a particular lead was chosen. I do not agree with the conclusion but the thinking part is what makes this a great game. I would opt for the spade ace. It is a near certainty that p does not have long spades thus making a spade a "safe" lead so we can see the dummy and maybe see how to proceed. If a spade continuation looks grim and a club looks reasonable I would continue with the
club A. Only after both the club and spade continuations look wrong will I fall back on the dia and hope p has 1 red ace. The bidding makes it anything but impossible for us to have 4 cashing black suit tricks so I see no reason to not try and take advantage of that fact and still have a back up plan when that fails.
club A. Only after both the club and spade continuations look wrong will I fall back on the dia and hope p has 1 red ace. The bidding makes it anything but impossible for us to have 4 cashing black suit tricks so I see no reason to not try and take advantage of that fact and still have a back up plan when that fails.
#5
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Posted 2015-February-28, 12:48
2-1 forumist choose to lead ♠A so lets stick to that. Your partner (Surprising or not I'm behind him) is one of the best teams players in Finland. Signals are udca, 1/3/5 but we are leading the ace.
Dummy surprises everybody in the table. It was a trap "preempt" with an aceless hand. This time that trap didn't catch anyone in the biding.
First trick fetches spade 5, 8 and 3.
How would you now evaluate your chances to set this contract?
Mike made a good guess that diamond lead happened in table and failed. Can you see why without seeing what north's hand?
Dummy surprises everybody in the table. It was a trap "preempt" with an aceless hand. This time that trap didn't catch anyone in the biding.
First trick fetches spade 5, 8 and 3.
How would you now evaluate your chances to set this contract?
Mike made a good guess that diamond lead happened in table and failed. Can you see why without seeing what north's hand?
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