[mr1303]

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2C was strong, 2H was a natural positive, and tended to show a particularly good suit. 5D showed 1 or 4 key cards.

What do you lead here?

[whereagles]

Seems like an easy trump lead.

[VM1973]

I figure the declarer to have

♠xx
♥AQJxxxx
♦xx
♣xx

I figure the dummy to have:
♠KQJ
♥Kx
♦AQJ
♣AK10xx

Matchpoints I play ♠A
Imps I play ♦8

[kenberg]

I lead the ace of spades at any form of scoring. The strong hand is on my left, partner is probably broke, we probably are not beating this but maybe a miracle will occur. It's in the nature of miracles that you cannot predict how they will take place so I won't try.

If you want me to be brilliant I will lead the deuce of spades, but I try to resist being brilliant.

I did once make such a brilliant lead against a five level contract but it was completely accidental. I had the ace of hearts and some small diamonds. After leading a diamond spot, I noticed that my ace of hearts was actually the ace of diamonds. The king was in the dummy and declarer played low, pard put up his Q from Qx and after he realized his queen held we got my ace and his ruff.

Still, I am laying down the spade ace.

[barryallen]

Partner has at maximum a J somewhere, so I really don't want to destroy any trick taking ability he may have. Holding the ♠A10xx, I really don't want to give away the contract by allowing easy discards on the ♠KQ by leading the A and to find partner with the J. I can't see much damage being done by leading a ♥ trump lead and a ♦ would more than likely only be giving them what is theirs anyway, but could cost.

In reality I can't see much hope in bringing this contract down and on that basis will lead the ♦8, giving declarer an awkward moment of looking down the barrel of two losers off the top, should he take the finesse. He may have some play for discarding on ♣ but may be short of entries if he goes up with the ♦A and finding ♣QJxx. There is still a chance at MP that this will not cost, but I firmly believe it's the best chance of bringing down the contract.

[Free]

I don't think we can beat this DD, so in MP I'd lead ♠A and be glad with 6♥=. In imps you may try to deceive declarer by underleading ♠A or leading a minor suit suggesting partner has some honor there.

Underleading ♠A is quite classic, but partner can hardly have some values. If declarer misses ♠Q, he should be able to place ♠Q in partner's hand and play accordingly.

Leading the ♣J is quite useless. You may hope declarer misguesses the ♣ situation, but there may not even be a possibility to misguess (dummy with AKT for example), or when you start discarding ♣s he'll know you didn't lead from Jxx anyway.

♦8 gives us the best chance to deceive declarer imo, so in imps, it's definitely worth a shot.

[mr1303]

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Approximate NS hands. As you can see a diamond lead is necessary to beat it.

[Phil]

mr1303, on 2011-July-19, 16:00, said:

Approximate NS hands. As you can see a diamond lead is necessary to beat it.

Hm?

[whereagles]

I think he means the spade ace is onside, Phil. Unless you lead diamonds, declarer plays a spade up and makes.

[Phil]

whereagles, on 2011-July-19, 17:13, said:

I think he means the spade ace is onside, Phil. Unless you lead diamonds, declarer plays a spade up and makes.

true.

www.correctformatting.com

[VM1973]

Something must be wrong. It seems as though the guy opened 2♣ with 21 square. Shouldn't he have opened 2NT?

[semeai]

VM1973, on 2011-July-20, 09:15, said:

Something must be wrong. It seems as though the guy opened 2♣ with 21 square. Shouldn't he have opened 2NT?

The two 10's are worth a point with supporting honors, so I wouldn't hold upgrading it against him.

[VM1973]

You know, this upgrading and downgrading business makes your real 2NT range from 19-22. That's just too wide considering you don't have an invite sequence.

I suppose holding:
AKQJ
AKQ
AKQ
AKQ

It's not 'really' worth 37 points because there are no 10s.

Bidding 2♣ with that hand he deserves to have his partner bid 6NT holding:

xxx
QJ10x
KQx
QJx

only to find themselves off 2 aces.