[Edmunte1]

---

Holding in second position a wretched hand, remarkable only by all jacks collection, you hear opponents bidding 1NT(15-17, can have 5M/6m/singleton) - 3NT, and you're on lead.
1) What's your lead in MP's?
2) What's your lead in IMP's?

[Flame]

I think the J of spade both.

[whereagles]

Anything can be right or wrong, but I'll try the ♣Q in both cases.

[bid_em_up]

whereagles, on May 7 2007, 08:41 AM, said:

Anything can be right or wrong, but I'll try the ♣Q in both cases.

While anything can be right or wrong, some can be more wrong than others, imo.

Given the lack of stayman by responder, he is more likely to have one or both minor suits than either major, and leading the club Q is too apt to give up a natural trick in the suit along with giving up your only likely later entry. To me, this makes the club Q a poor choice of lead.

If I only expected to be on lead once, the spade J is probably the best choice. Since I somewhat expect to be on lead again (via the club suit), I would lead a small spade initially at either form of scoring.

[jdonn]

Heart for me, I am crazy always leading my longest suit this way.

[pclayton]

At MPs; I lead a heart. Which one? I'm not sure I want to encourage a shift unless its clubs, but pard can't know that.

So I'll lead a conventional 7. There is a microscopic risk that the 7 blows a trick and the 5 doesn't, but I'll lead it to make the hand easier for pard.

IMPs? Very tough, but I think the ♣Q is best if we are trying to set the contract.

[ArcLight]

I lead a low heart against IMPS. I think the contract will likely make.
At MPs I also lead a low heart. IF I had a "safe" lead I would make that instead.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

hearts.

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: Why? Take your pick, e.g.
I always lead my longest suit,
all suits are dangerous, and a
heart lead is the one I can defend
most easily.
(There is nothing between spades
and diamonds, besides the lack of
stayman, which most likely means
nothing.)

[dcvetkov]

I trhink you have to consider overtricks in MP. Both spade and diamonds are dangerous and likely to blow a trick. Queen of clubs also, its too likely to hit K10x in dummy, so heart looks most passive and it may work out fine.

in IMP, queen of clubs offers best chance to set the contract, it needs one decent card from partner, but also need to find him with length, and something tells me opener is loaded in minors. So I think I will try 8 of spades. Heart may work out but we need to find partner with a lot of goodies in ♥. Better to hope he has 4 or 5 decent spades and we have what looks like 1 entry. Partner is marked with 8-10 points.

[mike777]

Jlall, on May 7 2007, 01:34 PM, said:

Mundane heart for me vs both.

ditto....and well said.

[Poky]

IMP: ♠8
MP: ♥7

[FrancesHinden]

4th highest of my longest and strongest, either form of scoring.

[Codo]

FrancesHinden, on May 8 2007, 07:10 PM, said:

4th highest of my longest and strongest, either form of scoring.

yupp I may forget this rule with AKQ,Txxxx;AK,xxx on lead against 3 NT but not with much less...

[Fluffy]

Codo, on May 9 2007, 01:01 PM, said:

FrancesHinden, on May 8 2007, 07:10 PM, said:

4th highest of my longest and strongest, either form of scoring.

yupp I may forget this rule with AKQ,Txxxx;AK,xxx on lead against 3 NT but not with much less...

Depends on the bidding



I had an unlucky evening years ago when I led twice a short suit instead of my 4 card unbid one, it turned out that both times we had 4-5 fit and I scored a big zero. Ever since then this ones become a no brainer.

[Flame]

Strange for me to see so many that always lead thier longest suit, i remember free telling us that leading from 4 card is many times better then leading your 4 card (i didnt agree) and i saw an article about it by luis who claim to check it with a computer and find out that with a weak hand leading from 3 card is better then leading from 4 cards.

[BebopKid]

4 of ♥

[ycos]

mp : low of spade
imp: low of hearth

what ♥ or ♥ depend of carding sistem

[dcvetkov]

Fluffy, on May 9 2007, 01:54 PM, said:

Codo, on May 9 2007, 01:01 PM, said:

FrancesHinden, on May 8 2007, 07:10 PM, said:

4th highest of my longest and strongest, either form of scoring.

yupp I may forget this rule with AKQ,Txxxx;AK,xxx on lead against 3 NT but not with much less...

Depends on the bidding



I had an unlucky evening years ago when I led twice a short suit instead of my 4 card unbid one, it turned out that both times we had 4-5 fit and I scored a big zero. Ever since then this ones become a no brainer.

well, I disagree that this rule should be followed blindly. When you have one jack in your hand and zero chances of getting in,, leading from 10xxx is almost pointless, unless you can reasonably deduct that partner has length of 4 or more in the same suit.

I agree is easier in post mortem with 4th always if the lead did not work, but as always you got to use your brain and all available information.

In MP, if you have yarborough, there are overtricks to consider, so if you think contract is likely making, passive lead may be better, like 10 from 109x in favour of low from 10xxx.

[junyi_zhu]

Edmunte1, on May 7 2007, 12:10 PM, said:

---

Holding in second position a wretched hand, remarkable only by all jacks collection, you hear opponents bidding 1NT(15-17, can have 5M/6m/singleton) - 3NT, and you're on lead.
1) What's your lead in MP's?
2) What's your lead in IMP's?

this is a simple H lead for both IMP and MP.
H lead is the least likely to blow a trick and when you hit partner's long hearts, it's
also good. if you really want to attack, S or D don't have to work out better than hearts. The same is true for C. Baically, you can expect two different types of 3nt bid, one is based on scattered HCP, the other is based on a long minor suit, for the first case, you really don't want to attack aggressively cause you may wait and take all declarer's losing guesses often. For the second case, you want to attack, but still, you don't know which suit to attack and H is still a very possible spot to attack. So H is really the percentage action and simple natural lead in my opinion.
Change the suit into HQ432, it actually becomes less clear, cause this time you really need to hit partner's good hearts otherwise, H lead may blow a trick. So it may still be a good IMP lead, but less obvious for MP.