[dkham]

You're sitting East, playing Matchpoints.

---

LHO opened a weak two in spades, and after a little bit of thought, RHO plonked down 3NT.

I hate this sort of opening lead, that's why I've put it on here to see what anyone else would have done. You've got to pick something!

Edit: fixed the hand diagram!

[gordontd]

dkham, on 2012-September-09, 02:55, said:

I hate this sort of opening lead, that's why I've put it on here to see what anyone else would have done. You've got to pick something!

Oh yeah, hands where you have AKQ in an unbid suit are just the worst!

[dkham]

Thanks for spotting that gordontd, I'd somehow become distracted while filling in the hand and got the cards wrong - the correct hand is as above! You don't actually have AKQ9 of clubs, but the less inviting J852.

[MrAce]

dkham, on 2012-September-09, 02:55, said:

You're sitting East, playing Matchpoints.

---

LHO opened a weak two in spades, and after a little bit of thought, RHO plonked down 3NT.

I hate this sort of opening lead, that's why I've put it on here to see what anyone else would have done. You've got to pick something!

You will lead ♣ of course, and as Justin said in another thread just don't lead the honor which asks pd to unblock ! (Although he said it for a different position where pd holds Jxxxx vs our AKQT and we dont have another sure side trick) You don't want your pd to unblock his J from Jx(x)(x) or w/e. Since you have a side ace you dont need to catch pd with Jxxxx either in this example.

In my style K is power lead and asks for unblock and count with the specific order. A or Q leads ask attitude, in this case the card that i am trying to find out if pd has it or not is the ♣J, so i would lead ♣Q since the lead of Ace asks for Q usually.

[dkham]

Thanks also MrAce for your comment, but sorry I've shot myself in the foot by posting the wrong hand first time which you've commented on. In the actual hand you don't have those big clubs but just four to the Jack.

[MrAce]

Oh well, disregard my post since you edited the hand

[MrAce]

dkham, on 2012-September-09, 03:43, said:

Thanks also MrAce for your comment, but sorry I've shot myself in the foot by posting the wrong hand first time which you've commented on. In the actual hand you don't have those big clubs but just four to the Jack.

Np m8, we all did that, it happens. Indeed it is annoying hand to lead from.

[Quantumcat]

I will try an ace and see if pard encourages or not (I lead kings if it's my own suit, aces if I want pard's opinion). They probably have plenty of tricks and I won't be hurting anything if I give them a few overtricks. If it turns out pard has a few stoppers, and the king of the ace I led turns out to be their ninth trick, I will apologise.

(edit: this is because the 3nt bid may have a suit unstopped, and he may have nine tricks to cash if this suit is not led)

[Codo]

I will try my longest suit. If this is wrong, I have high hopes that partner will stop spades at least once, so even if parter has another suit, we may switch in time.

[dkham]

Here's what actually happened on the hand. It's a disaster for EW, as North get's away with some very dubious bidding:

---

I was sitting East, and faced the opening lead problem. I reasoned that North must have a long running minor, so went for a heart lead.

I selected the ten for some reason. Declarer won and continued hearts. When I won the A♥ I then switched to diamonds, giving declarer his ninth trick. For further embarrassment (and a top for NS) declarer got a tenth trick at the end too, in clubs or diamonds can't remember which.

To beat it I think I need to lead a diamond (four off) or never touch diamonds (one off).

[Fluffy]

I obviously don't lead a club, somebody has ♣AKQ9 and odds are that it is not partner

[ahydra]

Couldn't 3NT just be a lot of points, eg x KQxx KQJx AQ10x?

Can't really blame you for not finding the diamond lead. I would have gone for a club or a heart.

ahydra

[mikeh]

Late to the thread and many will assume that I chose my small diamond lead after seeing the hand, but I didn't and thought I'd explain my choice. Which wasn't, I stress, because I thought it 'stood out' or even rated to beat the hand.

I chose it from a process of elimination.

Spades are out and I am sure that is unanimous

Clubs are out. I am all in favour of leading our longest suit, but I recall reading of a study years ago that suggested that Jxxx is the worst of all possible 4 card suits from which to lead, and the reason I remember it is that it confirmed a suspicion I already had, and have seen reaffirmed many times since.

A10x in hearts is a tough one. On the one hand, the more we hold, the less we need from partner. On the other, if we lead low, the A10 may end up blocking the suit even when it was the right suit to lead, so I just don't like the x lead.

The 10 is just too valuable a card, on many holdings, to lead and, on others, will either blow a trick or simply confuse partner as to our holding.

Either Ace is possible, but awfully committal....we basically need to guess right since surely leading the 'wrong' one will blow at least a tempo and almost certainly a trick or more as well. That that occurred in real life is not the least bit surprising, even tho the actual layout couldn't reasonably have been anticipated.


So this leaves us with the low diamond: not because it possesses any real intrinsic merit but because it possesses fewer negative attributes than any of the alternatives. It is the card that is least likely to mislead partner, while preserving the control of our 2 Aces. It may of course surrender a tempo and/or a trick, but all of our choices carry that risk, and the risk is at least as small on the diamond x as it is with any other card..in my view, smaller.

I often resolve difficult lead questions by elimination, so hope that setting out this sort of reasoning on this hand, in which the bidding and our hand are sort of 'everyday' occurrences, even tho the actual layout wasn't, will prove of use to some.

[MrAce]

mikeh, on 2012-October-12, 11:50, said:

Late to the thread and many will assume that I chose my small diamond lead after seeing the hand, but I didn't and thought I'd explain my choice. Which wasn't, I stress, because I thought it 'stood out' or even rated to beat the hand.

I chose it from a process of elimination.

Spades are out and I am sure that is unanimous

Clubs are out. I am all in favour of leading our longest suit, but I recall reading of a study years ago that suggested that Jxxx is the worst of all possible 4 card suits from which to lead, and the reason I remember it is that it confirmed a suspicion I already had, and have seen reaffirmed many times since.

A10x in hearts is a tough one. On the one hand, the more we hold, the less we need from partner. On the other, if we lead low, the A10 may end up blocking the suit even when it was the right suit to lead, so I just don't like the x lead.

The 10 is just too valuable a card, on many holdings, to lead and, on others, will either blow a trick or simply confuse partner as to our holding.

Either Ace is possible, but awfully committal....we basically need to guess right since surely leading the 'wrong' one will blow at least a tempo and almost certainly a trick or more as well. That that occurred in real life is not the least bit surprising, even tho the actual layout couldn't reasonably have been anticipated.


So this leaves us with the low diamond: not because it possesses any real intrinsic merit but because it possesses fewer negative attributes than any of the alternatives. It is the card that is least likely to mislead partner, while preserving the control of our 2 Aces. It may of course surrender a tempo and/or a trick, but all of our choices carry that risk, and the risk is at least as small on the diamond x as it is with any other card..in my view, smaller.

I often resolve difficult lead questions by elimination, so hope that setting out this sort of reasoning on this hand, in which the bidding and our hand are sort of 'everyday' occurrences, even tho the actual layout wasn't, will prove of use to some.

What a resulter you are MikeH !!



















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Kidding

[lalldonn]

I think a diamond is impossible to reasonably find, because if you want to lead from that type of suit a heart must be more likely to work.