[plaur]

Scoring: MP

1♦ - p - 1♥ - p
1NT - p - 3NT

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Say you lead top from interior sequences. Is the club 10 from Q109x a poor lead and why? (the field lead club 5)

[paulg]

I'd say the club 10 is the standard lead from this holding, so would not call it a poor lead.

I may lead the club 5 when I believed that someone else also holds length in clubs (as it is then likely that my 4th club will not win a trick due to its length and someone probably holds Hx and will always play high), but there is no indication of that here.

Leading the 10 wins when dummy holds Jxx and partner has a high club honour.

Paul

PS In the ACBL magazine there is a series of articles on leads and, Frank Stewart, the author, says:

Quote

"My solutions include a conjectural deal that shows how the lead I like might gain. Since opening leads are not an exact science I could easily present a deal in which my suggested lead is disasterous.

[coyot]

Against NT, there really is no need to lead the 10. It will broadcast to everyone what your holding is - and, truely, what are your plans with the suit?
You are hoping that partner has at least one honor in it - and in that case, it will hardly matter what your lead is!

If you lead club 5, you're telling partner that you're leading away from 4th honor (most likely) - and be it king or queen, his reactions will be the same in every case!

Probably the only situation where leading high matters is when the dummy holds Kxx and partner AJx. In any other combination I can think of, the lead does not matter in the positive sense - but it CAN matter if partner has 8x(x) in the suit and nothing more. The lead of the ten will then most likely tell everything to the declarer and allow him to guess the suit correctly, or to endplay you...

So, while it is not a poor lead, leading small is IMHO slightly better.

The chance for clubs being 4333 is less than 50%, despite your flat shape.

The combination with Jxx needs the 10 as lead only with partner having the king. If partner has Ax or Axx, it does not matter. If he has Ax, declarer will have K8xx and always score 2 tricks. If he has Axx, declarer will always score one trick only. If he has Axxx, declarer will always score 1 one trick only as well.

I don't know what is the percentage of hands where it will be wrong to lead 10 from this, but if dummy as J8xx and partner has one club honor, that's definitely one of them. If partner has Jx, that is another one.

So, I would lead small, hoping to find partner with at least one honor and hoping that it will not be one of the losing combinations - and my guy feeling is that there aren't too many of them.

[the hog]

From a 5 card suit I will lead the T, from this 4 carder I would suggest the 5 is best.