[Poky]

You have:
6
AQ104
K8653
Q52

Bidding, all Vul, IMPs:

Pard You
1D pass 1H 2C
2H 3C 4H pass
pass 4S pass pass
Dbl All pass

Your lead? And why?

[Free]

CQ. Partner asks for an unusual lead, the first suit of dummy. (Ops have very distributional hands)

[luke warm]

i'm not quite sure partner asked for an unusual lead, i think he may be doubling cause he thinks he can set it ...

the ops are 2 suited, else 4S's pard wouldn't sit for the bid.. i think i'd lead the heart ace... but my real question is, why didn't i bid 5D? we seem to have a double fit also in a distributional auction, maybe declaring vs. defending might be a little better.. then again, maybe not

[flytoox]

i will lead a trump.

[inquiry]

Partner is not loaded on this auction, he only raised to 2H's after all. While I don't believe the double calls for an "unusual lead". After all, you freely bid game vul, and this was a forcing pass situation. Partner is just suggesting a better defensive hand than an offensive hand. If partner was void in clubs, with four hearts, he probably would bid on. If he was short in spades he would pass, so this gives him a few spades to go along with his promised red cards. So you can reasonably expect him to be something like 3-4-5-1 (I give him 4 hearts due to the lack of a support double).

From a Law of total trick thing, this seems to be a double-double fit. Clearly they have at least 8 card spade and club fit, and likely a 9 card club fit (RHO probably has 4 for his raise, given his obviously long spade suit he ignored at first), and you have at least two 8 card fits in the red suits, and likely a minimum 9 card diamond fit (4-4-4-1 for partner is not out of the question). It this is the case, you can figure this is an 18 if not 19 trick hand. If partner had made a forcing pass at imps, I probabl would have bid to 5Hs. But here, if you can make 4H, you should be able to beat them two. The club lead is an attempt to find two club ruffs if partner has the spade ACE. He can win the ace and perhaps get to our hand twice in hearts for two ruffs, or if not twice in hearts, maybe once in hearts and once in diamonds by an underlead of teh diamond ACE. I hope to win 2C ruffs, spade ACE, and either 2H or 1H and 1D, for down two. Maybe you should be happy with just down one, this one could be very close. :-)

Ben

PS... I have become very fond of 2nd and 4th best leads, so in reality I would have lead the club FIVE, but that option is not in the list of opening leads. And if partner surprises us by having two clubs, hopefully one is the JACK or better yet, king or ace, so this lead doesn't cost us a trick.

[luis]

dK trying to have a chance to take a look at dummy so I can see what to do next.

[the hog]

Trump. I doubt this X calls for an unusual lead.

[EricK]

I lead a trump, which is often right when we have the balance of points.

I prefer a bid of 4D to 4H. Why not let P know there is a double fit? It will make it easier for him to decide what to do over 4S/5C.

Eric

[mishovnbg]

My vote is for K DI lead. It can lose only if opps have a void in DI. It will work fine if my p had 4 cards in SP (4441). If he have void in CL or singleton CL and A SP he will give me lowest DI and I can continue there, still having probably 2 entries in HE. If he have K HE and dont like to ruff CL, he will give me high DI. If he dont have K HE, he can overtake my K DI with A DI and return HE, to take HE before to continue playing DI. At last, if he give me middle DI I will continue DI lead or trump, depend of dummy.
Misho

[mpefritz]

I don't want to sound pessimistic, but it looks like all the black suit cards are in the wrong spots.

Often when your side holds the balance of power, a trump lead makes sense. But does that hold true on hands with double double fits? I think it probably depends on the fit in the second suit, as the second (non-trump) suit will provide declarer pitches for your suits if you do not cash your winners right away, and create ruffs where they did not exist. In these cases, declarer will want to draw trump and then use the side suit. With a balanced side suit there are no pitches, so a trump would be fine.

I think I lead the DK which probably doesn't lose tempo and will help me figure out where to go.

fritz

[Poky]

The whole board was:

KJx
KJx
x
AJxxx

6 AQxx
AQ104 xxxx
K8653 AQxx
Q52 -

10xxxx
xx
J
K109xx

[Free]

Any lead kills the contract imo.

A club can do most damage, since partner will be able to ruff 2 times, and with CQ he knows about the HA. QC -> ruff, high H, C2 -> ruff, DA or DK and SA and SQ, that makes -3 ;D Small club gives the same result...

DK can get the same result, if you switch to Clubs immediately and hope partner doesn't think you're singleton D (probably not, but you never know).

HA is not a good lead, because if you switch to Clubs, your partner has to play under his DA to your king. I don't suspect him to do that too easily in most partnerships. Mine would probably trust me, and if I don't have DK he'd kill me

Trump lead is awfull, but can still do the job if partner leads Hearts and under his DA later on.

Small Diamond gives away a trick in any way your partner plays, so that's the worst lead, as for small Heart.

[Trpltrbl]

Quote

You have:
6
AQ104
K8653
Q52

Bidding, all Vul, IMPs:

Pard You
1D pass 1H 2C
2H 3C 4H pass
pass 4S pass pass
Dbl All pass

Your lead? And why?

Q of Cl or K of D, opted for Q of club if pd happens to be void in clubs He shud be able to see the H switch after that lead. And if he has singleton CL he must have Ace of SP and he can still switch to H.

Mike ;D