[WesleyC]

IMPs - BOTH

P (1C) P (1S)
P (1NT*) P (4S)
AP

* (15-16 HCP)

Holding: ♠A9 ♥J72 ♦9842 ♣T754,
It's your lead!

Comments/Reasoning will be awarded bonus points

[Fluffy]

I don't have much info, so I lead my longest suit.

sicne opponent opened 1♣ I will lead a diamond better.

[Phil]

Overall, our cards are placed well, with partner's 10 count or so sitting over the strong NT, so I don't need to get aggressive here.

A spade is out. I hope I don't have to provide any reasoning for that.

A club is possible, but LHO will usually have four or five clubs here. A club can blow a trick when partner has Qx, AJx and maybe a few other combinations. The best reason to lead a club is the suit might be 4=4=2=3 around the table with pard holding Ax. Or pard might have a stiff. A club is my 2nd choice.

A heart is out. While I don't think my RHO has four, there are just too many combinations where its wrong.

A diamond is my choice; probably the 4.

[Lobowolf]

Pretty much in agreement with the other responses. In very broad terms, in most cases, the defense does best by countering what declarer will do, and declarer's plan is largely based on the assets that dummy provides. Declarer has some number of losers, and most often, one of three things happens to declarer's losers:

1) They get ruffed
2) They get pitched
3) They get lost

The auction hasn't suggested that dummy will be able to ruff or pitch declarer's losers. If that's the case, they'll get lost (eventually) if we don't do things like lead from suits like Jxx and give tricks or 1/2-tricks away. Both because it's the longest unbid suit, and also because it's the one not headed by an unsupported honor, I'm leading a diamond. This isn't an auction that suggests scrambling to get 4 tricks in a hurry; it's an auction that suggests not giving away trick 9 and/or 10.

[kennye]

its a blind lead, but i tend to lead short suits because there is more chance to take tricks. Partner could have (H) KQ,AQ,K10,Q10 for it to be right. Diamond lead tends to give up nothing but is not attacking.

[Cascade]

Phil, on Aug 19 2009, 05:43 AM, said:

A diamond is my choice; probably the 4.

eh?

why did you choose that card?

[Lobowolf]

My diamond would be the 4, as well. 3rd & 5th against suits. Count leads are more common than attitude leads in the USA.

[pooltuna]

Cascade, on Aug 18 2009, 02:59 PM, said:

Phil, on Aug 19 2009, 05:43 AM, said:

A diamond is my choice; probably the 4.

eh?

why did you choose that card?

Because it would be the standard lead in a 3rd/5th lead agreement?

[nigel_k]

Low heart.

You need to lead aggressively because declarer will want to discard losers on dummy's winners. A trump is wrong and a club is unlikely to set up winners. You won't find partner with short clubs when he couldn't act over 1♣. So it has to be a heart or a diamond.

I prefer a heart because I have an honour and the three card suit means any tricks we have are more likely to be cashing. Leading from a jack is poor as a passive lead but is a better shot than four small cards when you need to make an aggressive lead. With an entry there is no reason to lead the jack rather than a low card and the jack could confuse partner.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

it is either diamonds or hearts, I would go with a heart,
maybe the jack makes partners heart honors positioned
right.

Maybe th Ace of trumps allowes me to switch.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[655321]

♦

[neilkaz]

Very close decision between a ♦ and a ♥ for me. I'd rate ♦ as 10 and ♥ as 9.

I do like nigel's reasoning, but lean towards Phil's here about being passive.

[rd6789]

an attacking lead I think at teams - small ♥ my best suit and my shortest - I am worried about dummy having 4 tricks to go with declarer's 6 - so we need to set up our tricks while still have spade control.

[WesleyC]

On the actual hand, dummy had 4 club tricks so an attacking lead was the key. However as it turns out, partner held the KQT of diamonds over dummy's AJx (along with the Ah) so it needed to be a diamond. We were the only table to beat 4S (2/3 of the field would have right-sided the contract with a transfer, and all the other Weak NT tables presumably led a heart).

I thought a diamond was fairly clear. Another case for a diamond (that hasn't been mentioned yet) is that a heart switch is often possible from partner's side of the table, while the first diamond lead will usually need to come from our side (possibly twice).

[andy_h]

Diamond lead. Trump is pathetic, I hate leading from Jxx and LHO tends to have clubs so that leaves me with a diamond.