[Wackojack]

The opponents bid 1NT - 3NT. The most promising lead you can find is from a 3-card suit KQJ. You lead the King, dummy goes down with a low doubleton, pd encourages and the King holds. Is the standard way of telling pd that you have only 3 by continuing with the Jack? Would you continue with the Jack in any other circumstances?

Thanks in advance for comments.

[whereagles]

Usually, when you lead from a sequence and it holds, the next card is the lowest card in the sequence.

KQJ = K, J.
KQJT = K, T.

etc.

But then again, you have to see if transmitting that info to pard is relevant. If not, you might as well play it differently to cast some doubt in declarer.

[1eyedjack]

I normally follow with the Q if I started with an odd number in the suit, J if I started with an even number in the suit. Or if I have the length and partner has encouraged on the K, follow with low.

[SoTired]

"partner encourages" means that partner has 2 low spots. If partner has Axx, it makes no difference.

Personally, I don't think it makes any difference. If we play the Q or J 2nd round, partner with Axxx or A10xx will duck. With A10xx will overtake the 3rd round and with Axxx will duck the 3rd round. If partner does anything different, then it is partner's mistake.

[paulg]

A reasonable rule is that when you lead the "known" card you do not want partner to overtake.

So, from KQJ, you would lead the Q on the second round.

With KQJxx, you might lead the J to encourage an overtake and return.

This can be applied in all contracts.

p

[Wackojack]

cardsharp, on Sep 19 2005, 12:06 PM, said:

A reasonable rule is that when you lead the "known" card you do not want partner to overtake.

So, from KQJ, you would lead the Q on the second round.

With KQJxx, you might lead the J to encourage an overtake and return.

This can be applied in all contracts.

p

This was the rule that I was applying when I led the K from KQJxx after the opps raised 1NT to 3NT. There was a low doubleton on table and pd holding A1052 in that suit played the 2. (We play reverse count in these circumstances) I next played the J. Pd overtook with the A, played 10, so we duly took our 5 tricks.

Curiously, after the deal pd apologised to me, saying that he played the cards incorrectly. Later when questioned about this he said that it was standard to play the j only when holding KQJ precisely, so that pd then knows whether and when, or not to overtake holding say A10xx(x). So applying this rule he said that when I played the j, (supposedly from KQJ) he should have played low again, so not blocking the suit.

This rule does seem to have some consistency, but I have never heard of it before. However, I cannot see that it is superior to the "known card" = "don't overtake" rule.

Any light on this so called standard?

[EricK]

SoTired, on Sep 19 2005, 03:46 PM, said:

"partner encourages" means that partner has 2 low spots. If partner has Axx, it makes no difference.

Personally, I don't think it makes any difference. If we play the Q or J 2nd round, partner with Axxx or A10xx will duck. With A10xx will overtake the 3rd round and with Axxx will duck the 3rd round. If partner does anything different, then it is partner's mistake.

What you don't want to happen is this:

Leader with KQx leads K, partner with Axx encourages. Leader follows with Q and partner overtakes to avoid blocking the suit.

So ...

With KQJx(x) lead K followed by J so partner knows if it is OK to overtake with Axx. With KQx lead K followed by Q and partner won't overtake.

As a consequence of this, if you have KQJ bare you want partner to overtake the third round if appropriate. You do this by leading K then Q and then J. When partner sees the J he will know you have a tripleton because with a longer suit you would play the J second.

Eric

[SoTired]

makes sense to me... i stand corrected

[1eyedjack]

Wackojack, on Sep 17 2005, 10:16 PM, said:

You lead the King, dummy goes down with a low doubleton, pd encourages and the King holds.

Then later:

Wackojack, on Sep 19 2005, 07:08 PM, said:

This was the rule that I was applying when I led the K from KQJxx after the opps raised 1NT to 3NT.  There was a low doubleton on table and pd holding A1052 in that suit played the 2.  (We play reverse count in these circumstances)

Not wishing to seem pedantic, but which is it? Attitude or count?

As I recall, Vinje recommends attitude when there are two low in dummy. Provided that partner's signal is unambiguous, continuing low would seem to work. But if count, then back to square one, as above.