[gwnn]

what do you lead?

xx
Axxx
xxx
Axxx

1♠-2♠
4♠

MP's

would you do something else at teams?

[helene_t]

Don't feel strongly about it, I think anything could work.

Everyone at the club would lead an ace so there I might as well go with the field.

Otherwise I have a slight pref for a trump. Might try a small club at IMPs if I felt like a genius.

[jdonn]

I would lead a trump. Since my cards are aces I don't have to set very much up as long as I will get in again.

[655321]

helene_t, on Nov 15 2009, 03:01 PM, said:

Everyone at the club would lead an ace so there I might as well go with the field.

Even if you agree with the concept of 'going with the field', I think that randomly leading unsupported Aces is very bad. So bad that if the field is doing it, you will pick up a lot of matchpoints every time you are on lead with an Ace just by leading something else.

[Jlall]

I have thought a lot about this type of hand before and came to the decision I prefer a diamond to a trump.

Leading a trump will give up a tempo sometimes so that they can knock out one of our aces and set up some discards when we could have gotten diamonds going, so a diamond is better from an active point of view.

I think a diamond is also better from passivity when we have a doubleton trump because we could easily be picking off something like QTx or KTx of trumps with partner, or KJx/AJx helping them finesse when they have limited entries etc. The same thing could happen in diamonds also, but it's less likely.

A trump is good when we stop dummy from ruffing stuff though.

If we had 3 trumps I would prefer to lead a trump because it's much safer, and because we might get in with our two aces and get to play 3 rounds of trumps at them sometimes instead of just 2.

[jdonn]

Jlall, on Nov 15 2009, 05:16 PM, said:

I think a diamond is also better from passivity when we have a doubleton trump because we could easily be picking off something like QTx or KTx of trumps with partner, or KJx/AJx helping them finesse when they have limited entries etc. The same thing could happen in diamonds also, but it's less likely.

Part of my logic is that I think this is more likely in diamonds, not less likely. It could happen if partner has a 4th or even 5th card in diamonds, but in trumps he often has fewer than 3 on this auction.

[cherdanno]

655321, on Nov 15 2009, 05:08 PM, said:

helene_t, on Nov 15 2009, 03:01 PM, said:

Everyone at the club would lead an ace so there I might as well go with the field.

Even if you agree with the concept of 'going with the field', I think that randomly leading unsupported Aces is very bad. So bad that if the field is doing it, you will pick up a lot of matchpoints every time you are on lead with an Ace just by leading something else.

Aside from that, there isn't even a good way to go with the field, unless you know which ace the field leads.

I would lead a diamond but it seems like I have thought less about this lead than Josh and Justin.

[ritong]

how come no one mentions the fact that, most of the time, the declarer has a two suiter on this auction? by two suiter i mean at least 5/4 , and the rest of the time he has 6+ spades
therefore, i would not consider opening a blank ace as criminal in this particular situation, with two ideas in mind 1) avoid to lead his likely second suit, i.e. diamonds or 2) get super lucky and hit my partner s single or Kx if the suit i pick is declarer s side suit, or even grab our four possibles tricks when he had possible pitches. of course, all that is very speculative, but leading a trump or a diamond looks scary to me, anyway scarier than an ace.
also, there is a miniclue in the fact that rho did not try to find a possible 4/4 fit in hearts, so my definitive choice would be club ace.

[gwnn]

any heart will beat it. or ace of clubs and then heart switch upon seeing the nondescript dummy. pard has the ace of trumps and a doubleton heart. i was given this as a problem and said trump wtp then thought maybe a diamond was better. they said it didnt matter, i lost the board anyway.

[P_Marlowe]

A trump.

With kind regards
Marlowe