[FrancesHinden]

Teams-of-4, 24-board league match, imps converted to VPs

Scoring: IMP

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LHO opens 2♠ (either strong with spades or weak 5-5 spades and a minor*)
RHO bids 2NT (relay)
LHO bids 3♣, 5-5 in the blacks about 6-10 HCP
RHO bids 3NT
this is passed round to partner who doubles

What do you lead?

*I'm not enamoured by these methods either, but this is opponents

[effervesce]

I presume partner either has strong hearts and want you to lead his suit, or is asking for a lead of one of LHO's suits.

Thus the options are

J hearts if partner wanted hearts
T spades if partner wanted spades
7 clubs if partner wanted clubs
A diamonds to 'take a look'

Generally people who open 5-5s tend to have a decent suit(s) when opening vul, I'll choose the J of hearts.

[Free]

♣7

[gnasher]

The double should definitely call for a lead of one of dummy's suits. Which one depends upon what a double of 3♣ would have been.

If a double of 3♣ would have shown clubs, a spade lead is called for.

If a double of 3♣ would have been for takeout, he might have either black suit, and I'm suppose to work it out from my own hand. I'd assume clubs, because my black-suit holdings make that more likely.

[Mbodell]

I think the default x agreement should be dummy's first bid suit so I choose the ♠. I'm not crazy about opponents methods.

[655321]

♣7.

Has to be a club or a spade - I expect partner to have both suits stopped, but perhaps a bunch of tricks in one black suit and not the other. So, I guess clubs is partner's stronger black suit. I don't mind the ♠T lead either.

[FrancesHinden]

gnasher, on May 15 2008, 09:39 AM, said:

The double should definitely call for a lead of one of dummy's suits.  Which one depends upon what a double of 3♣ would have been.

If a double of 3♣ would have shown clubs, a spade lead is called for.

If a double of 3♣ would have been for takeout, he might have either black suit, and I'm suppose to work it out from my own hand.  I'd assume clubs, because my black-suit holdings make that more likely.

Double of 3♣ would have been takeout of clubs, but I think it would tend to imply spade length (what hand passed over 2S and now is prepared to compete over 3C that doesn't have spade length?).

[Halo]

I'd assume partner wanted a lead of oppos primary suit - spades.

I chose the four - in a minority of one. Feels good to give a count, and I have an ace to get the lead for a lead of the ten on the second round.

[hotShot]

Partner will always sit over LHO, and opps can't avoid to play both black suits.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see a need to help opps developing tricks in a black suit, if partner really is strong in ♥, he needs to know which suit is best to exit.
So I'll lead ♦.

[andy_h]

I'm leading a black suit. As to which one...well I'm guessing dummy's first bid suit, so spade 10 it is.

[gnasher]

FrancesHinden, on May 15 2008, 10:06 AM, said:

Double of 3♣ would have been takeout of clubs, but I think it would tend to imply spade length (what hand passed over 2S and now is prepared to compete over 3C that doesn't have spade length?).

Axx KQ10x Kxxxx x, perhaps? Obviously, that's not likely on this hand, but I think in principle a double of 3♣ should be about the red suits rather than about spades.

Even if a double of 3♣ would have promised real spade length, that doesn't mean he can't have spades on the actual auction. He probably lacks either sufficient diamond length or sufficient high cards to have acted over 3♣.

[paulg]

I'll lead a small spade. Hopefully partner will infer that I have an entry when I do this, otherwise I'd lead the ♠10.

Paul

[Codo]

I assume the following methods:
After 2 ♠ double had been take out
2 NT 16-18
3 red suit good suit
3 Spade asking for stopper
4 m leaping michaels


After 3 Club double take out
3 Diamond red suits, better diamonds


What do we need from partner to beat this contract? About 4 tricks I think he needs real good spades to have four tricks and no bid in the first round.

SO I go with a spade. I see no reason to lie here, so I try my systemic spade, the 8 or the 4.

[mcphee]

How hard is this? Partner suggests a S lead and I have no reason to not follow the suggestion, and I am very pleased I hold an ace to I can lead them again later. Low S and hope it works.

[Free]

mcphee, on May 15 2008, 02:09 PM, said:

How hard is this? Partner suggests a S lead and I have no reason to not follow the suggestion, and I am very pleased I hold an ace to I can lead them again later. Low S and hope it works.

If you lead a ♠, I think the 8 is clear cut! Partner will have 5 ♠s so he needs to know in which suit he can reach you. ♠T asks ♥ and small ♠ asks ♣. When declarer shows out in the first trick, I think partner will know what the 8 means.

[gnasher]

Free, on May 15 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

If you lead a ♠, I think the 8 is clear cut!  Partner will have 5 ♠s so he needs to know in which suit he can reach you.  ♠T asks ♥ and small ♠ asks ♣.  When declarer shows out in the first trick, I think partner will know what the 8 means.

If your objective is to cater for Kxxxx and AQJ9x, it's at least as effective to lead the 10, which will hold the trick, followed by the eight, which is suit preference.

There is a potential, though unlikely, problem with leading the eight: partner will think you have 8x, and will win the jack from AQJ92. Then you can't cash three more of the suit whilst still retaining a tenace over dummy.

Edit: Sorry, I got my suits mixed up. Once ♠10 holds, the choice will probably be between the red suits, so I expect I'll be leading a low one on the second round. And, I think I was too dismissive of Free's suggestion - it is possible to imagine a layout where the choice is between three suits rather than two.

[mikeh]

I may be over-rationalizing, but I don't think that this auction specifies a spade lead: I think partner has one of the blacks sewn up and is willing to gamble that either he can take 5 tricks right away or that we can, between us, stop declarer from running 9 before he gets back in. So I think he wants us to figure out which black suit.

It seems unlikely that he is doubling on pure power, especially since he cannot know about our Ace. So he is doubling because he holds one black suit very strongly.

He cannot expect us to be holding the lead in that suit... so he must have either 5 top tricks (AKQJ9) or a 1 loser suit and an entry, probably in the other black suit.

If so, which suit is he likely to hold?

AKQJ9 is equally possible in either suit, in terms of the cards we hold, but far more likely in clubs than spades, because of our length. Would declarer really bid 3N, and pass 3N, with a void in either suit?

More importantly, imho, our possession of the spade 10 greatly lessens the number of 1-loser suits he can hold in spades.

Consider the example, cited above, of AQJ9x. He doesn't expect us to have the 10 (let alone 108x). So he expects dummy to hold K108xx more often than not, and for us to lead a small stiff or doubleton. Declarer ducks... how on earth can partner expect 4 tricks?

No, a 1-loser suit will usually include the 10. If so, it has to be clubs.

So my shape (and declarer's bidding) suggests that partner doesn't have 5 spades and my spots suggest that partner's spades, no matter how long, aren't good enough for him to be able to double. BY contrast, my club holding is entirely consistent with the auction, including declarer's pass.

In my dreams I am hoping for partner to be Axx xxxx x KQJ109 and opener to be Kx AKQ109 KQJxx x with responder QJ9xx xx x Axxxx.

[FrancesHinden]

In some sense this question is a waste of time, as it's going exactly one off whatever you lead (OK, it might make on a small heart lead but only because that will needlessly confuse partner). But I thought quite a while at the table.

Partner's double is possibly slightly marginal:
♠KQ62
♥10963
♦4
♣AJ108

but as he said, it's the sort of auction where responder may have overbid slightly when the alternative was to play at the 3-level in a misfit, none of the suits are breaking, and doubling will stop me making "some hopeless red suit effort" of a lead.

I'm not sure I buy that the spade you lead at trick 1 is suit preference, because I think it's more important to select the right spade for the suit in isolation.

I like mike's analysis of why partner's clubs will be better than his spades, but then again I preferred a spade lead because my spades were better than my clubs...

Eventually I led the 10 of spades hoping to pin singleton 9 in declarer's hand.

Dummy had
AJ9xx
xxx
10
Q9xxx

and I leave declarer's hand as an exercise for the reader.