[cherdano]

The reasoning "lead from the 4-card suit without the ace so that you have an entry later" is really only part of the story. If you lead from the queen you may also just set up a trick for your queen, whereas the lead from Axxx really only sets up a trick for your side if you get the 4th card established. And declarer may well need to play the suit anyway if he has say the king and the queen, the lead from Axxx may well be doing his work for him. (If you have bad spots I find the lead from Axxx almost disgusting...)

[ArtK78]

Victor Mitchell is reported to have expressed the opinion that an underlead of an unsupported queen is the worst lead in bridge.

[ralph23]

ArtK78, on Aug 14 2007, 02:46 PM, said:

Victor Mitchell is reported to have expressed the opinion that an underlead of an unsupported queen is the worst lead in bridge.

Is that published somewhere?

Who reported it, anyhow?

[cherdano]

ralph23, on Aug 14 2007, 01:57 PM, said:

ArtK78, on Aug 14 2007, 02:46 PM, said:

Victor Mitchell is reported to have expressed the opinion that an underlead of an unsupported queen is the worst lead in bridge.

Is that published somewhere?

Who reported it, anyhow?

What was the context? Who is Victor Mitchell anyway? Obviously the remark is complete non-sense in some circumstances, so...

90% of the time such quotes are taken out of context...

[ralph23]

cherdano, on Aug 14 2007, 03:00 PM, said:

Who is Victor Mitchell anyway?

Surely, you jest.

Among many other things, he was a favorite partner of Sam Stayman.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...752C0A963958260

I guess he is not very well known outside the USA.

[Edmunte1]

Why only comparing Axxx with Qxxx when the ten and the nine are missing?
I think that lead from Q10xx is a good lead vs. 3nt and from A10xx isn't and also a lead from Q9xx is better than from A9xx. So i think Jack is the normal card.

[cherdano]

ralph23, on Aug 14 2007, 02:50 PM, said:

cherdano, on Aug 14 2007, 03:00 PM, said:

Who is Victor Mitchell anyway?

Surely, you jest.

Among many other things, he was a favorite partner of Sam Stayman.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...752C0A963958260

I guess he is not very well known outside the USA.

I was only half-jesting, I didn't know him since he died long before I started playing bridge seriously, but then googled him. Anyway, there are many other players with a similar record and saying "xyz is reported to have said never do zyx" is an extremely bad way to try to win an argument anway. Esp. here where (as jlall pointed out) it doesn't matter at all whether he is right the only thing that matters is whether LHO agrees with him.

[ArtK78]

Around the time of Vic Mitchell's death, there were numerous columns written about his life and his life in bridge. Matt Granovetter wrote about Victor Mitchell in Bridge Today Magazine. I do not have the time right now to look it up, but I was struck by the point that Vic Mitchell made about underleading an unsupported queen. I always thought that the worst suit combination to lead from (all other things being equal) was jack empty. But Vic Mitchell claimed from his experience that queen empty cost the most tricks.

I don't know if any study has been done on the subject, but I suggest to you that to ignore what Vic Mitchell has to say about his experience in bridge is not a good idea.

[Trumpace]

cherdano, on Aug 14 2007, 04:11 PM, said:

ralph23, on Aug 14 2007, 02:50 PM, said:

cherdano, on Aug 14 2007, 03:00 PM, said:

Who is Victor Mitchell anyway?

Surely, you jest.

Among many other things, he was a favorite partner of Sam Stayman.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...752C0A963958260

I guess he is not very well known outside the USA.

I was only half-jesting, I didn't know him since he died long before I started playing bridge seriously, but then googled him. Anyway, there are many other players with a similar record and saying "xyz is reported to have said never do zyx" is an extremely bad way to try to win an argument anway. Esp. here where (as jlall pointed out) it doesn't matter at all whether he is right the only thing that matters is whether LHO agrees with him.

Yes, I agree with you.

These kind of arguments tend to get very annoying, especially regarding play problems.

Also, in this case, Vic Mitchell is just _one_ of the world class bridge players. If we really want to have arguments like these, we should at least have a good sample space of experts to pick from...

Anyway, I don't think we really have seen any completely convincing argument showing that the lead from Qxxx is way better than leading from Axxx. It is likely true, and some of the arguments make sense, but they are not really compelling.

Perhaps a few suit "representative" (representative: so that this is not just another proof by example) suit layouts and the corresponding comparision between the leads would have been more convincing (not that I am asking you to do this).

[ralph23]

ArtK78, on Aug 14 2007, 04:13 PM, said:

I don't know if any study has been done on the subject, but I suggest to you that to ignore what Vic Mitchell has to say about his experience in bridge is not a good idea.

No, I wasn't trying to ignore anything, I was just wondering if there was any published expert support for the idea, that is open for anyone to read about.

Apparently then it looks like Vic talked to Matt before his death,

and Matt reported it later when Vic died,

but we don't know except from Matt what Vic really said, because Vic didn't write it up,

and we can't read what Matt said Vic said anyway, because it's 12 years ago and lost in the dust, which is certainly understandable and common.... oh well.....