[MickyB]

Playing a 32 board match, you go into the last 8 boards 22 IMPs up. RHO, the top rated player in the UK, opens 2NT; His partner raises to 3.

What do you lead from

AKTxx
K6xx
Jx
QJ

If you need to know the spade spots to decide, please elaborate (you don't have the 9). Leads are 4th highest (2nd from rubbish), A for attitude, K for unblock or count.

Our teammates good set allowed me to get this wrong and still scrape it by 5 IMPs!

[pclayton]

Low spade.

I don't want to lead a high spade, cut myself off from pard, and have declarer place the lead in pard's hand and pick up my ♣QJ at the same time. By leading a low spade, I force declarer to take the '%' play in clubs and lose to my QJ dub.

I may get endplayed out of my heart trick later, but this seems like the best way to score 4 spades and a club trick.

[Free]

I've noticed that leading your 2nd longest suit usually works out better than your longest suit (if you have 5-4). So I rather lead small ♥. BUT, before doing that, I want to take a look at dummy, so I'll lead ♠A which will give an obvious shift signal back, and then I'll decide weither or not I'll lead ♥ or not.

[mike777]

A of S, followed by K and another.

[fred]

The big gain for leading a high spade is when declarer doesn't have a spade stopper but declarer or dummy has Qx. A high spade lead might also allow me to get out of my own way and avoid being enplayed (to lead away from the King of hearts).

The big gain for leading a low spade is when partner has Qx or when partner has 2 spades and declarer has to lose the lead to him).

My judgment suggests that, because I have so many HCP, the first condition is more likely than the 2nd so a high spade would be my choice. I don't feel that strongly about it and would be prepared to apologize to my partner if I am wrong (but not if I had to lead a non-spade to beat 3NT).

The stronger your spade spots, the more attractive the lead of a high spade becomes, but even if my spots were the 3 and the 2 I would still lead high.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Trumpace]

If I had the spade 2, I might try to deceive the declarer by leading it. If I had had AKJxx instead, I would lead the Ace.

[whereagles]

High spade for me as well. When one has a side entry, it's usually ok to lead high from AKxxx. In this case the king is best, asking pard to unblock his (would-be) Jxx.

[the hog]

Paul Marston is a huge advocate of canape leads and would certainly lead the low H. I probably don't have the guts to do this in a teams event. Low S, not an honour.

[mila85]

If you decide to lead a low spade: Do you lead 4th or 5th?

[whereagles]

Mila: whichever spade is the falsecard.

Having most of the points, I'm not worried of deceiving pard. The bonus comes if declarer (mis)counts me for 4 spades. Then he might be lured to, for instance, take the heart finesse instead of cashing clubs on top.

[Winstonm]

Seems the most partner can have is a J, so I don't see us beating this without the spade suit, hoping to find Qx opposite xxx, so I lead the K of spades looking for count. Other reason for an honor lead is if partner shows two spades, I can go ahead and cash the Ace and then clear the spades so I can't be thrown in later in that suit. If I lead a low spade, and declarer holds Qxx or QJx, he can strip squeeze me and later throw me in with the spades to lead away from my heart king.

winstonm

[flytoox]

mila85, on Feb 10 2005, 02:55 PM, said:

If you decide to lead a low spade: Do you lead 4th or 5th?

I think it is good time to lead 5th here, trying to mislead the declarer.

[mila85]

flytoox, on Feb 11 2005, 09:48 AM, said:

mila85, on Feb 10 2005, 02:55 PM, said:

If you decide to lead a low spade: Do you lead 4th or 5th?

I think it is good time to lead 5th here, trying to mislead the declarer.

Yes.

I saw a very silmilar hand and the same bidding in junior championship in Prague.
Misleading was the only way how to defeat the contract..

[MickyB]

At the table I led my 4th highest spade, giving declarer a trick from his Qx in dummy opposite xx in hand, and he took 10 more tricks before I got back in. I was worried that everyone would consider a top spade to be automatic, thankyou for reassuring me there!

With most 14 counts there would be no chance of partner ever getting in, but my doubleton honours could well promote partner's intermediates and it is possible that both opps are swinging slightly and partner has a high card or two. Maybe I should have enquired about their responses to 2NT - if responder is unlikely to have a 3 card major then a top spade becomes more attractive I think.

I really can't see a heart lead being best - looks to me like 4 spade tricks is the way to defeat this contract - but maybe it is just too different from what I am used to for me to appreciate it!