[DenisO]

MPs N/S Vul dealer West:
(in a multinational simultaneous pairs event)

Bidding goes:
1♥ - (P) -1♠ - (P)
2♦ - (P)- 2♥ - AP

What do you lead as North with:
♠5
♥QJ972
♦64
♣AQ763


Analysis welcomed - even after looking at the textbooks I'm not sure

For interest - how happy are you with your lead - scale 1-5?.

Thx
Denis

[mike777]

Choice 1=Ace of clubs, forcing game.
Choice 2=spade

[Free]

I think small ♣ could be a nice lead here

[han]

Small club? Me don't get, simple bridge hard enough. Play the ace for me please.

[bestguru]

I would probably also lead a small club. I don't have a good reason for this other than not breaking my tenace.

Free, what is your reasoning on the small club lead?

[helium]

club is obvius and i play the ace:)

[fred]

I think there is a lot to be said for leading a trump (the 2 if you are feeling brave, the Queen if you are not). Note that the 2 lead is not quite as dangerous as it first appears. If dummy has Ax or Kx of hearts, there is a good chance that declarer will win the first trick with dummy's honor (as opposed to running the lead around to his hand and winning cheaply).

The "forcing game" is often ineffective against low level contracts because every time you "force" declarer to ruff, he wins a trick with a small trump.

A trump might also gain when dummy has 2 hearts and 1 or 2 diamonds. Sure you will be able to ruff high in front of the dummy on such layouts, but you will be doing so with a natural trump trick.

If not a trump I would lead a spade (not because I want ruffs, but because this won't blow a trick in the spade suit and because it is my best chance to get partner on lead to play a trump or a club).

I am not a fan of leading from AQ combinations, but if I was to lead a club I would definitely lead the Ace (as opposed to a low one). There are several advantages to leading the Ace:

- retaining the lead so you will have a better idea what suit to play after seeing dummy

- not losing to a singleton King (or losing a trick when dummy has the King and declarer has a singleton though I admit that it is likely that dummy's King will score a trick regardless if the deal is like that).

- not confusing your partner as to the location of the missing high cards (he will NEVER play you to have the AQ of clubs and could be forgiven for never playing you to have even the Ace of clubs - this is not the sort of auction in which it would be considered normal to underlead an Ace).

Yes, it could be right to "retain your tenace" but probably only if declarer has 3 clubs to the King (which is not very likely in my view). Even if he has that, partner might have a singleton club (not likely) or the Jack of clubs (not unlikely) or you might be able to work out that you should not continue clubs.

Agree strongly with Hannie's sentiments about simple bridge being hard enough!

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[luke warm]

i sorta like the spade lead, even tho i'm not in a rush to ruff spades... i'd rather not lead a club, i might need 2 tricks there

[Winstonm]

I'm with Fred on this one but I'm not brave enough to lead a small trump so I lead the trump Queen? Reasoning? RHO doesn't want to play NT and there must be a reason, so I want him to play in NT. Best way to do that is to remove the trumps as quickly as possible. It also appears the side suits are breaking poorly for declarer, another reason to make him play in NT. And lastly, as Fred pointed out, I don't want declarer to score all his small trumps with ruffs.

[Free]

bestguru, on Feb 2 2005, 11:17 PM, said:

I would probably also lead a small club.  I don't have a good reason for this other than not breaking my tenace. 

Free,  what is your reasoning on the small club lead?

If I look at the bidding, I see the following:

- Opener has 5♥ and 4+♦, and probably less than 3♠s (otherwise a 2♠ bid is probably better than that pass). This means he has some (probably 2-3, maybe singleton) ♣s.
- Responder has 4+♠, 0-3♦s and 2-3♥s. So I actually suspect he's quite long in ♣.
- I have only 9HCP, and opps don't even go to 3-level or 2NT, so partner must have some strength. Obviously he has some ♠s and ♦s (at least 9 cards in these suits, probably even 10).

All I'm hoping for is that partner has some honour (J is probably enough) in ♣, if he has Kx I hit the Jackpot, and if not, I'll probably won't throw away much tricks (maybe 1 if declarer has ♣K). Fact is: declarer will have problems with communication, and from the moment he has to ruff something, I become boss in trumps.

In the most perfect situation, partner has ♣Kx (declarer small doubleton), and a decent trump, so I get even stronger in trumps, but that's probably wishfull thinking

[Rebound]

To me it seems obvious to lead the unbid suit. So the ace is the play.

[sceptic]

q!H I would be happy with dummy does not have much so I think take the poss ruff with dummy away from them or the spade singelton

I would prefer to make both A and Q clubs if poss so I would not lead them.

I would never have thought about the 2!H as a lead

[pclayton]

Q♥ (even before I read Fred's comments).

Playing a forcing game rates to get real ugly as I let declarer score his little trumps (on the board as well) and I end up ruffing pard's tricks and/or getting endplayed in trumps.

[Fluffy]

If declarer has 5♦ its mandatory to stablish ♣ before he does with ♦.

If he has only 4, forcing him will achieve nothing, and we should guess if a passive lead or a trump lead is best.

♣ suit is one from wich we hardly want to lead, but so is ♥, I'll still trty a low ♥, because it suggests more a ♦ lenght to declarer than a ♥ lenght.

[DenisO]

Many thanks all for comments - especially Fred for detailed analysis - very instructive esp the comment about "forcing game" not being so effective against part scores.

For the record the hands were:

Scoring: MP

---

North led the ♣6 and I played the ♣8 , giving declarer the cheap trick . Pity North hadn't read Mike Lawrence's Opening Leads!

Denis

[Free]

DenisO, on Feb 3 2005, 10:44 AM, said:

~snip~
North led the ♣6 and I played the ♣8 , giving declarer the cheap trick . Pity North hadn't read Mike Lawrence's Opening Leads! 

Denis

In Dutch, we have a nice rule teached to beginners (translated here ofcourse): "3rd man does what he can". Too bad you're not a beginner anymore

[DenisO]

Free, on Feb 3 2005, 10:01 AM, said:

In Dutch, we have a nice rule teached to beginners (translated here ofcourse): "3rd man does what he can".  Too bad you're not a beginner anymore 

Not sure how to take that Free - I'm just a BIL intermediate member looking for good advice from you experts

I think, using Rule of 11, that ♣8 is routine play. I don't expect pard to underlead his Ace so that puts it with declarer and that's his only card higher than ♣6. If I've got this wrong I'll go back to being a beginner

There is another saying which also works very well "Keep a card to beat dummy's best"

[luke warm]

i dont think you can blame south... this is why it's inadvisable to underlead aces.. if n/s lead 4th best, west "obviously" has the ace, meaning east's jack will also make (if south plays the king)

[Free]

luke warm, on Feb 3 2005, 12:11 PM, said:

i dont think you can blame south... this is why it's inadvisable to underlead aces.. if n/s lead 4th best, west "obviously" has the ace, meaning east's jack will also make (if south plays the king)

That's what I mean... If you blindly play your K because you learned that one rule, then you win (pure luck, next time you'll lose). On the other hand, if you play a bit better and suspect partner's ♣ suit is QT763, then it's better to play the 8 and keep your ♣ guard.

But that puts me back to think. If opener has a 5-5, then he won't be able to throw anything away on his ♣J. If he has 5-4, then it's wrong to play the K for sure.

I can keep making analyses, but after such an auction, wouldn't it be better to lead ♣T with QT763? Just a thought...

[luke warm]

the way i prefer to lead, yes the ♣10 is better there... no jack, honor higher than 10... sorry, i'd never think to do anything other than finesse dummy