[FrancesHinden]

We had a dreadful weekend at the Crockfords final, coming 7th out of 8 (in spite of winning 3/7 of our matches). We all played like drains and got every decision wrong. This was one of them

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Teams of 4, 16 board matches, imps converted to VPs, vul against not, LHO deals

1D   1H
2D   3NT

Lead

[jillybean]

♥J

[bid_em_up]

jillybean2, on May 14 2007, 07:38 AM, said:

♥J

If you are going to lead a heart, you are probably better off leading the heart A. You have 6H, declarer has at least 4. Unless declarer holds specifically KQxx(x), the odds of finding a stiff K or Q in dummy or partners hand are pretty good.

Assuming you find a stiff honor in one of the hands, your second heart lead now lets you set the suit up while you still retain the spade Ace as an entry.

Leading the A also wins if partner happens to hold a doubleton honor as he will unblock it under the heart A.

[MickyB]

♥A, but it feels close

[mikeh]

I agree with the ♥A: the instinctive lead (for me, anyway) of the J will rarely work.

If declarer has KQxx, then the J cannot work since it is very unlikely that partner has the ability to lead through twice (he would need the remaining 3♥s, leaving declarer void) and two entries: it ain't happening.

If partner has Kx, then we are going to give declarer his Qxxx trick anyway, and as long as partner unblocks the K (he should), we break even with the A lead.

If partner has Qx, then, again, he has to unblock.. but, so long as he does, we are back to even.

And the critical holdings are singleton honours in either dummy or partner.. the J loses to these (dummy holds or declarer ducks partner's card).

I do know some very good players who routinely respond 1♥ with 3=3=2=5 less than gf or 3=3=3=4 even with a minimum game force, and against them, the J makes more sense than against others, because they might hold Qxx and have 9 running tricks when partner holds Kx, but that is a very narrow target, and I wouldn't aim for it.

[pclayton]

I like Mike's reasoning, and I would lead the ♥A, however I think theres more to it.

If pard has a small doubleton heart, we need to lead the Jack. Even though declarer is always entitled to 2 heart tricks (assuming we clear the suit); we can run the heart suit if: pard can win an early trick, allow me to knock out the 2nd stopper, and retain my spade A as an entry.

However, in that scenario I am mentally conceding 2 heart tricks to declarer. Along with 5 or 6 diamond tricks, declarer only needs to find 1 or two black suit tricks for this to be right.

Therefore, I am making the assumption that declarer has only one ♥ stopper. By leading the Ace, we can untangle the suit when dummy has a stiff honor, pard has a stiff honor, or pard has Qx and unblocks (typ).

Pard also needs to understand the importance of unblocking from Kx With a vulnerable (one trick max) diamond holding, I hope he would, but with a sure set, I think he wouldn't.

If the auction was a more benign 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 3N, I think I'd lead the Jack.

The Jack also caters to hearts being 6=0=3=4 around the table, with pard holding 7xx.

[whereagles]

My feeling points at the ♥A, but if pard has the expected xx doubleton and a diamond trick, we're breaking communications.

Oh well... ♥A anyway ^^

[jtfanclub]

jillybean2, on May 14 2007, 07:38 AM, said:

♥J

I would never lead the Jack. I might lead the ace, trying to catch an honor (and hoping partner will find the spade return). My other choice is the 8. If partner has a doubleton heart honor, I want him to play it now. If I lead the J, and partner has the Qx and plays low, declarer with his Kxxx can afford to duck, and I may not get a chance to tell partner I need a spade back. If I lead the 8, and partner puts on the Q, it'll take a lot of brass for declarer to duck and risk us taking four hearts off the top! Now partner can lead back a heart, so I don't have to signal which black suit I want.

Why give partner a chance to make a mistake?

[pclayton]

jtfanclub, on May 14 2007, 08:10 AM, said:

jillybean2, on May 14 2007, 07:38 AM, said:

♥J

I would never lead the Jack. I might lead the ace, trying to catch an honor (and hoping partner will find the spade return). My other choice is the 8. If partner has a doubleton heart honor, I want him to play it now. If I lead the J, and partner has the Qx and plays low, declarer with his Kxxx can afford to duck, and I may not get a chance to tell partner I need a spade back. If I lead the 8, and partner puts on the Q, it'll take a lot of brass for declarer to duck and risk us taking four hearts off the top! Now partner can lead back a heart, so I don't have to signal which black suit I want.

Why give partner a chance to make a mistake?

I don't care for the 8. Pard will go right at T1 (assuming dummy has a stiff with T1), but probably won't go right later in the play.

The critical case you are catering to seems to be Qx, which works great since pard will play you for AJ98(x) or KJ98x.

The problem with the 8 is when dummy has the stiff honor and partner a doubleton. He'll know we can cash a maximum of 2 hearts under the best of cases (since you apparently don't have a sequence), and may want to shift.

When pard has a small doubleton and declarer wins the K/Q, I don't what pard would think, but can still go wrong. Pard may think the 8 is from A/K/Q8xx(x) and that declarer is just monkeying around at T1, winning an honor instead of the 10/9 from AQJT /KQJT / AKJT.

Why wouldn't pard unblock with Qx? you aren't leading from J-T-small-small; the minimum holding should be J-T-8-7 (although I'd lead the 7) or J-T-9-x (I might lead the x).

I love fence-building plays, but not this one.

[inquiry]

I was reading the 2003 world championshiop hand book the other night on a similar hand where defender lead the ace (I even think it was a heart) in the hopes of catchign a singleton honor. The defender had a side ace too. The ace didn't work, but it didn't hurt. What stuck out in my mind was Eric Kokish comment that it was a good attempt to scoop a stiff honor. I think it was a us defender, and I agree with the lead then, kokish comments in the book, and mike's comment above. If I think about it, I will try to find the hand and the comments.

Ben

[skjaeran]

Agree with the ♥A lead advocated by several other posters and with their reasoning.

[FrancesHinden]

I led the ♥A.
It doesn't work.
The winning lead is the J (or 10, if that is systemic).
Partner has K7x and dummy a void. They have 10 tricks to cash in the minors.

(the 8 might also work, but I also don't see the benefit in making a non-systemic lead from this type of holding: we want partner to know exactly what we have in the suit)

[whereagles]

baaad frances, double-crossing us... lol

[Foxx]

Arrgh. When I read the first post I saw a routine ♥J lead and didn't even think there was a decision. Then as the thread went on, the ♥A lead looked better and better, until I thought, "Yeah, OK, OK." D'oh.... and partner had to be dealt the ♥7 on top of it all. That's just a rankler.

[Codo]

One hand does not proofe anything, I still belive that the Ace stands out a mile.