[jillybean]

Dealer: North Vul: NS Scoring: IMP

♠ Q ♥ J6543 ♦ K95 ♣ KJ84

West North East South

 -     1♠    2♦    2♥
 Pass  4♥    5♣    Dbl
 5♦    Pass  Pass  Dbl
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

Your lead and your plan please, I hope you like the auction.

[jdonn]

My lead is a spade and my plan is to beat them a lot.

Many would prefer double to 2♥ since the hearts are so bad and the hand is minimal, but 2♥ is, as foo would say, the book bid, so I don't think it can be too harshly criticized.

[vuroth]

I would have doubled instead of 2♥. Not unreasonable, though, given that the Q singleton shouldn't be completely useless.

Lead: Q♠. I'm often guilty of trying to hit the ruffing home run. Then again, declarer can probably guess we have the K♦, so getting in now would be good.

[jillybean]

Ok, you lead your Q♠, partner over takes with A and returns 7♠.
Declarer plays K♠ which you ruff, now what?

The auction: Double is ok too but I tend to overbid later trying to catch up if I dont bid now.

[Lobowolf]

I agree that it's close between 2♥ and double, and I wouldn't really care which my partner chose.

I'd also lead the spade; there's something to be said for leading singletons in partner's suit, especially when you have trump control. That being said, I think leading a diamond is a close second choice, and it wouldn't at all surprise me to find that it's the winning lead. The rationale for the diamond includes
1) We have a good holding in declarer's side suit, i.e. we know declarer has club losers.
2) Dummy is known from the auction to have a weak hand. He probably won't be able to provide pitches for declarer's losers. The best value dummy will likely provide is the ability to ruff.
3) Trump leads are often effective when we have all of the side suits covered. Declarer has bid spades, raised hearts, and shown a good hand, and we have clubs.
4) We have a clear balance of the power, another stereotypically good time to lead trump. When 2 weak hands need to take a lot of tricks, they usually try to do it by scoring trump separately.

I'm almost talking myself into preferring the diamond to the spade, actually. I wouldn't consider either of the round suits for more than a second.

[vuroth]

jillybean2, on Apr 24 2009, 01:25 PM, said:

Ok, you lead your Q♠, partner over takes with A and returns 7♠.
Declarer plays K♠ which you ruff, now what?

The auction: Double is ok too but I tend to overbid later trying to catch up if I dont bid now.

Partner is asking for a heart switch. 4♥?

[hanp]

I really disclike 2H but it seems to have worked out well.

I would also lead the spade queen. I suggest you tell us what dummy is before we have to decide what to play at trick 3.

[jillybean]

oh yeah

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     1♠    2♦    2♥
 Pass  4♥    5♣    Dbl
 5♦    Pass  Pass  Dbl
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

SQ S3 SA S9
S7 SK D5 S5

[hanp]

For the bidding to make sense declarer needs to be exactly 2-1-5-5. You cannot stop declarer from ruffing 2 rounds of clubs in dummy which is all they need to set up the 5th club. I would just play a heart and make sure we get our diamond and club trick.

Two side comments:

- Partner played back the highest spade they could afford, asking for a heart return. On this hand it doesn't matter since you "know" the hands already from the bidding.

- I would definitely have bid 3D with the west hand. (I know west was your opponent.)

[jillybean]

Thanks, would you believe declarer was 3154?

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     1♠    2♦    2♥
 Pass  4♥    5♣    Dbl
 5♦    Pass  Pass  Dbl
 Pass  Pass  Pass  


The advice I was given after the hand was to start with ♥ and then ♥,♥,♥ , when declarer has 2 suited hand I must lead our suit or trump. People are often quick to give advice but rarely do they take the time to explain why. I DO appreciate advice but it can leave me no better off.

Time to play less and read more