[Helmer]

Scoring: MP

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East bid ♠
South bid ♥
West bid ♦

Contract 5 ♦

Lead: ♣ Queen.

After the board my partner was so happy about his ♣-lead, and that he didn't lead my suit ( ♥ ).
Furthermore he thought it was so brilliant that when he got tricks in spade, end-played declarer - so that I suddenly got 2 ♥ tricks.

I told him that there was absolutely nothing to be happy about - his lead, actually gave away the contract, but as declarer didn't un-blok his ♣ 10 - he was unable to finess my partner - and then discard a spade, on a high ♣.

That declarer - twice in dummies hand - not playing a ♥ towards the declaring hand, is his mistake not our braveness.

Am I right or totally wrong, when I say that the lead gave away the contract, if we had had a reasonable good declarer?

Thanks

[helene_t]

How did he end-play declarer?

Anyway, a heart lead should work better than a club lead (other than a deceptive ♣J maybe ), since ♣Q may make declarer think that the club finesse is more likely than the spade finesse.

[kfay]

You're right.

[jjbrr]

If the order of the bidding is to be believed, E opened some number of ♠, S bid ♥ at a level necessarily higher than E bid, and then they got to 5♦. The fact that you had to bid ♥ at the 2 level and it seems likely the 3-level suggests that there is no reason partner shouldn't lead a ♥.

A ♣ lead could certainly work and its not hard to come up with hands where a ♣ is right, but on this particular hand, yes, partner gave the contract away with his lead.

But go easy on him, leads impossibly difficult to get right all the time.

[mikegill]

I'm still hung up on East opening some number of spades

[Echognome]

mikegill, on Apr 27 2010, 12:11 PM, said:

I'm still hung up on East opening some number of spades

Maybe a 1st favorable 2♠ showing 5♠ and a 4+ card minor?

[Jlall]

Who said east opened spades? It coulda been p 3H 4D p 4S p 5D (yes 3N is a much better bid, but presumably no one bid 3N since they ended in 5D).

[jjbrr]

We were given the auction

East bid ♠
South bid ♥
West bid ♦

And while I agree with your point that they aren't necessarily in order, generally that's how people present auctions to others.

[gordontd]

mikegill, on Apr 27 2010, 08:11 PM, said:

I'm still hung up on East opening some number of spades

In certain bits of Europe it would be a routine 2S opener.

[gwnn]

Yes, it was given away or not.