[daveharty]

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In the opponent's style, 3S is weaker than 4S would have been at North's third call. Your lead?

[billw55]

I assume we have no agreements about special meanings of doubles. Since we are not defending slam, I won't take it as request for one of dummy's suits. So I just choose the normal small diamond.

[Phil]

Dummy has shown hearts and clubs and no solid diamond stopper. Declarer didn't rebid 3♦ over 3♣, nor took preference over 3♣ with 3♥, so I expect 7=1 in the majors. Declarer probably has broken spades and could easily have a double diamond stopper but because the spades are shaky, steered clear of 3N.

Partner has to be doubling on some spade strength, and since he is under declarer, they need to be good enough to handle one lead through - something like KQT9, QJT9, etc.. I would also expect partner to have some secondary values in the hearts.

A diamond could be a disaster - into the AQ and dummy gets a ruff with its stiff trump. A club or trump could see declarer get a quick heart pitch when dummy has AKxx and declarer Qx - or partner is ruffing in with a natural trump trick when dummy has AKxxx. I also don't want to expose partner's trump holding, even though partner has done a good job at that already.

I'm leading a heart.

[ggwhiz]

I'm with Phil.

My agreement with pard is that the double says get off your natural lead which is a ♦ here. I hate leadeing from an empty Jack so a ♥ it is.

In our style, if a ♦ lead is desired you have to just pass.

[aguahombre]

We have a special agreement about this double. She knows how bad my leads are, and has it set..."Dave-proof".

But I will try a heart.

[mikeh]

I don't know how we can ever have an agreement that this double says anything about our lead....it merely says they screwed up (or just got unlucky, as our spade holding suggests). Opener has long but weak spades and partner has a side bullet or two and long and chunky spades. We don't know opener's style but maybe he has something like AJ8432 xx Qxx Ax and since 2♠ didn't promise 6 (I am guessing on that obviously) chose to rebid them at the 3-level rather than take a preference to hearts or bid 3N.

I make my normal lead: I just don't think partner can expect me to do anything else, and the normal lead is a diamond. Heck, for those who think he wants to warn us off....consider this.....he knows we will usually lead a diamond. He doesn't expect either opp to be void in diamonds....so if he is looking at good spades and the diamond Ace, he is mentally counting that Ace as a trick....because of course we'll lead the suit! Now, he may also have a round Ace as well, and we'll survive if we guess that one, but if we guess wrong, away goes one (or more) of our defensive tricks.

When we start interpeting normal penalty doubles as artificial lead-directors, we are looking waaay too deeply into the tea-leaves, imo.

[daveharty]

aguahombre, on 2011-September-30, 10:03, said:

We have a special agreement about this double. She knows how bad my leads are, and has it set..."Dave-proof".

[Phil]

mikeh, on 2011-September-30, 10:41, said:

When we start interpeting normal penalty doubles as artificial lead-directors, we are looking waaay too deeply into the tea-leaves, imo.

Forget about the tea-leaves. Partner has told us the cup has a crack in it. Declarer's spades are weaker than can be expected, thus, diamonds rate to be much stronger.

I do agree that there's nothing conventional about partner's double. However, we need to factor partner's spade strength into the overall layout and let that weigh into our decision.

[whereagles]

Trump. Pard's holding is probably strong enough to withstand this lead and he should have hearts locked.

Trump thus, as it might stop a diamond ruff.

[gnasher]

Partner expects us to make the lead that is normal given all the information we now have. That doesn't have to be the same card as we'd have chosen sometime earlier in the auction.

One of the things that partner's double tells us is that the contract is going down as long as we don't give it to them. As others have said, if partner has high cards in spades, that increases the chance of diamond honours in declarer's hand. Those seem two good reasons for not leading a diamond.

[daveharty]

My thinking at the table was similar to mikeh's--that this double carried no lead implications, partner simply has to be able to double here if he thinks the opponents have bid shakily and are running into a bad layout. I thought about leading a diamond, a heart, or a trump, but finally decided that a diamond lead was "expected" on this auction and partner must be prepared for it, so that's what I chose. As you can see this was not a success:

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Partner was of the opinion that the double called for a heart lead, which I don't buy, but I probably should have led a heart anyway for the reasons that phil and others have outlined.

[billw55]

Am I the only one who thinks west should not double with that hand?

[daveharty]

billw55, on 2011-October-03, 06:45, said:

Am I the only one who thinks west should not double with that hand?

No.

[aguahombre]

billw55, on 2011-October-03, 06:45, said:

Am I the only one who thinks west should not double with that hand?

Maybe West shouldn't. Maybe the heart leaders would be happy he did, because they would have trotted out the diamond otherwise but decided to go passive after the double.

Maybe the diamond leaders wouldn't be as happy and would have been content with 4S undoubled and making.

[billw55]

aguahombre, on 2011-October-03, 11:42, said:

Maybe West shouldn't. Maybe the heart leaders would be happy he did, because they would have trotted out the diamond otherwise but decided to go passive after the double.

Maybe the diamond leaders wouldn't be as happy and would have been content with 4S undoubled and making.

Of course I mean looking only at the west hand

How could west know that east has a trick? Or that spades are not xx opposite AJTxxx over him? Or that a heart lead (if the double indeed requests it) won't serve to help establish the suit in dummy?

[chasetb]

Lightner double at the 4 level? I agree that West should NOT double unless they have a specific agreement that it forces a Heart lead. Even then, that West hand is pushing it.

[aguahombre]

chasetb, on 2011-October-03, 12:40, said:

Lightner double at the 4 level? I agree that West should NOT double unless they have a specific agreement that it forces a Heart lead. Even then, that West hand is pushing it.

This has already been covered very early in the thread. I agree with those who have already stated it doesn't force a heart lead, but suggests not giving away a trick (by leading away from a king, for instance).