[paulhar]

EarlPurple, on Apr 22 2004, 02:36 AM, said:

I'm either going to lead a small spade or the king. King works if dummy has a stiff Q. Leading J or T rarely gains anything.

If your spade holding were weakened to QJ10xx, you would lead the queen and hope to get in twice with your ♥K and ♦A to take three spades, a heart, and a diamond. So why not lead an honor here? Leading low unnecessarily gives up a trick when the declaring side has all of A,Q,9, and gives up the contract when you were going to set it simply by taking three spades by promotion in addition to your ♥K and ♦A (assuming neither declarer or dummy has 4; against 1NT-3NT, dummy probably hasn't got 4 spades because he didn't bid Stayman.)

As to the choice between the jack and the king, which is more likely, that your partner has the ♠Ace or that dummy has a singleton Queen? Since some of dummy's 3NT bid could come from a long suit, your partner could easily have the ace of spades.

If your opponents don't know Stayman, or if dummy implied four spades, a lot more can be said for a low spade lead (see EarlPurple's post.) If dummy has four spades, setting up the suit by leading an honor is a pipe dream.

However, he claims that a low spade lead works a lot better if partner has a doubleton honor. Perhaps, but with you having all the entries, you can still recover after the lead of the jack, especially if your heart king wins a trick.

Also, it was noted that even if declarer has AQ9, partner could get in to lead a spade through. Having won the 9, and holding the AQ of spades, any competent declarer will try to play the hand to keep your partner off lead. Yes, sometimes it isn't possible, but with you holding 11 HCP and declarer not wanting your partner on lead, the chances are pretty remote of getting a lead through declarer's AQ. IMHO, best to give the devil his due and hope to take five tricks the easy way.