[cherdano]

Scoring: MP

(P)-P-(1♣)-1♥
(X)-P-(2♠)-P
(4♠)-AP

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You are South, LHO opened the bidding with a pass.
In case it matters, partner probably wouldn't raise with a 4count and 3 hearts.

[Free]

low ♦

[inquiry]

My attempt to look through the back of the deck... Spades are 4-4 partner with 2 assuming they play 1S here over 1H as showing five. You can ask, they should tell, so lets assume that.

2S wasn't forcing, but showed extra values, so think good 14 with distribution (can you see his long clubs yet), or 15 without it (but then why not 1NT opening bid? Let's assume their 1NT range is 15-17 since not stated). What about WEST, he didn't open (bad 12 or worse), but he had too much to simply invite game over 2♠, so let't imagine 10 to 11. So lets give them both minimums, to give us best shot, WEST 10, EAST 15 that would be 25, we have 10 so we are back to partner having about 5 points maximum. But we don't think EAST is balanced since he didn't open 1NT, we are fairly sure he has five or six clubs and four spades.

Since partner failed to raise, we think partner doesn't have three hearts to Queen or ACE. So his points are elsewhere. If in clubs, that will be badly placed for us (in front of declarer's clubs). IF in spades, we might get 2S, 1D, and 1H without doing much. But if in diamonds, we might be able to get two diamonds, and a heart and a spade.

Play for the hands to be something like this...

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Only low diamond at trick one gets it.... hihg diamond and diamond allows heart pitch, heart is instantly fatal, as is spade....

1000 words to explain why free is 100% correct with his short 1D.... :-)
Ben

[MickyB]

How does partner know to go up with the diamond king?

[Free]

3rd man HIGH (to keep it short again )

[Free]

I lead low ♦ to get partner to play ♥. My best shot to reach him is imo with ♦, and it has no use of leading my Ace first (even in case opener has a stiff, it's better to underlead the Ace to keep control of the suit). Extra chance is if dummy has KJ or so, declarer might guess wrong.

[mike777]

Club jack. Hope hand is not over yet!

[Flame]

I would lead anything but diamond low.
There are biddings that suggest underleading an ace, but this one is not, stiff K in declerer's hand is quite possible, and there are no evidents that we should be agressive to take our tricks. (the hand Ben pictured with solid club is rare)
spade lead is not nececary because we short in club ,probebly shorter then dummy, and we have high trumps.

[Chamaco]

I would underlead an Ace only if my pard knows I do it once in a while, otherwise the main victim of this deception may be pard, with potentially bad consequences for the ptship harmony.

Without this "ptship feeling" the risk is too high that pard plays low, playing forr the ace in declarer's hand and making him guess.

"Cover honor with honor" does not apply when you can see that the honors that would be promoted by covering (J in this case) are in dummy.

[inquiry]

Well, while you will never lead a diamond, here I will never lead the club jack. 1) I don't want to ruff, 2) I am only helping declarer set up his source of extra tricks in his long club suit.

I might start a heart, hoping parnter has Qx, setting up 1H, 1S, 1D, but then where is your fourth trick comming from Partenr will not have an Ace in addition to his supposed heart Queen, and club Queen will do no good unless with TEN. IF partner has the heart ACE, you can score 1D, 2H, and 1S (if teh spade jack is nicely placed), but if partner has heart ace he iwll be very short in hearts....

Ben

[pclayton]

A♦. Low diamond is intriguing; but there's nothing to suggest they are getting great splits here, and we may be able to beat this just by taking our tricks. I would feel rotten if we compressed our diamonds because pard ducked at T1.

I would expect pard would redouble if he wanted a heart lead. I'm really hoping for A-K♦, heart shift and wait for spade.

[mike777]

No expert here but I assume partner is allowed to win Ace of clubs and allowed to count my points and count our tricks, then shift to heart and not give me a club ruff. That stills gives declarer their 14HCP with 2 bullets and me only one bullet.

[Rebound]

I agree with Free. K♦ seems best chance to get to partner's hand to lead a heart.

[helium]

mike777, on Oct 13 2004, 09:40 PM, said:

No expert here but I assume partner is allowed to win Ace of clubs and allowed to count my points and count our tricks, then shift to heart and not give me a club ruff.  That stills gives declarer their 14HCP with 2 bullets and me only one bullet.

u put a lot of pressure on partner here when u lead singelton ♣ and exspect partner to see u want a ♥back and not a ♣ruff, and how do u know p have ace of clubs? better to lead the ace of ♦ then and see if u still think pt have ace of club.
btw i voted for small♥ but i like the small♦ lead too:))

[the hog]

C lead is poor. I would choose a H or a D. Probably a H.

[Fluffy]

Lead your longest suit, it isn´t headed by the ace, so what is the problem?.

[inquiry]

MickyB, on Oct 13 2004, 04:41 PM, said:

How does partner know to go up with the diamond king?

1) Because i will lead 4th best diamond. Can it be a singleton? on this example, that would give declarer 5♦ to ACE and he opened 1C and jump rebid in spades.

2) Second, partner will know i don't have heart AK... because with five to that i would likely at least try to give him ruff

3) Partner can count my hand, like I can count his...he will know how many trumps I have... from the diamond lead, he will know how many diamonds I have, he will know I bid one heart with five here, so he will know my distribution. Actually, if this is the hand, the DEFENSE is easier and clearer for my partner. I didn't bid 1H on S-honor-xx and H-KQxxx and choose to lead a low diamond from xxxx... He will know I don;t have spade Kxx as I probably would try for club ruff then. It is almost double dummy for him.

Ben

[luke warm]

♦A... i don't share the optimism that partner will know i have the A (if i underlead it)... and i don't think the ♣J is necessarily bad... it might accidently cause my ♠Q to make if declarer, fearing a ruff, played off the A, K

[whereagles]

Suit by suit analysis:
- Spade? No way.
- Heart? Not attractive. Pard seems to have some points, yet he didn't support.
- Diam? Possible.
- Club? Possible.

Overall pic:
- Resp took a flier at game opposite what could be an average hand. Looks like he has a side club fit to justify it, so club is out of the picture.
- Diam seems urgent, to prevent discards.

Which card:
- Ace is the normal lead.
- But opener has clubs and spades, so he might be weak in diams.
- A low diam wins if dummy has KJx or declarer has Qxx and pard KJT.

I pick a small diam over the ace.

[inquiry]

luke warm, on Oct 14 2004, 01:19 PM, said:

♦A... i don't share the optimism that partner will know i have the A (if i underlead it)... and i don't think the ♣J is necessarily bad... it might accidently cause my ♠Q to make if declarer, fearing a ruff, played off the A, K

Well diamond ace is not horrible, and in fact could be right. The disadvantage is diamond ace is it takes declarer off a guess if dummy has the diamond King and either of them has teh diamond jack. Leading a lwo diamond is almost sure to force them to guess wrong. The diamond king is more likely to be in dummy becuase of the negative double over 1♥ promising diamonds and spades...

So low diamond wins (assuming your partner will go up with the king AS HE SHOULD if you lead low and declarer has heart ACE... Diamond ACE will win in the same situation if declarer has too many hearts to throw them away on any diamonds you set up in dummy (figure dummy for four diamonds, so declarer needs six red cards for this to work).

Low diamond will work if parnter has the diamond king or if declarer misguess diamonds. After all, he doesn't know the spade queen is protected. If I was going to rate leads, on a scale of 1 to 10.... I would rate....

Dx = 10
DA = 7
Hx = 3
CJ = 0

Now, ANY of these leads might be required...and low diamond might give declarer a chance to go wrong when he has SAJxx H=AQ D-xx C-AKQT9 and dummy has S-Kxxx H-Jxx DKJx C-xxx. Anyway, it is time for the hand....