[FrancesHinden]

Scoring: MP

---

LHO deals, and the auction goes

1♣ 1♠ 1NT P
3♠ P 3NT all pass

3♠ showed a slam try in clubs with a singleton or void spade.

What do you lead?

[Fluffy]

for ♠ to be good partner should have 6♠, and that is onlypossible if he has opening values, bt that is hard, so I think ♥ is the proper lead, the suit we rate to have the best fit. (neither opponent rates to have 4 cards).

[mike777]

I lead spade.

Hopefully we can still win the match with next board.

[Double !]

partner had an opportunity to tell me to lead spades.
partner did not take the opportunity to tell me to lead spades.
so......I think I'll lead something else.

Leading from J-4th never seems to work out for me, so i'll try a heart.
(Haht if you're from Boston area).

[bearmum]

I will lead a ♥ (in case opener has a VOID spade ) and hope partner will forgive me for not leading a ♠

[flytoox]

I go with heart lead. Declarer announced twice that he has stopper in spade. If he has sth like SAJX, he certainly would move on after pd's 3S. His 3N should really says he has lots of waste in spade. I'd better to trust him this time. If I am wrong I will appologize to pd.

[Winstonm]

It's MPs. so beating the contract isn't the only concern. I don't want to make it easy on declarer to repeat the finesse against the club King when holding xx, so attacking his hand entries seems right. LHO is interested in slam so I'm more inclined to place him with the missing heart/diamond aces. A holding consistent with this bidding might be KJ9x, Qxx, Qxxx, xx. I'm going to lead a diamond and see if we can't get hearts led from the other side...and to be safe, I think I'll lead the 7 of diamonds. If luck is in, we might eventually even endplay dummy to score 3 hearts, 1 diamond, 1 spade, and a club if dummy has: x, Axx, Ax, AQJ109xx.

Of course, I've written this all out before I lead to show partner that I really was trying and, yes, next time I will lead a spade, so sorry......

WinstonM

[Echognome]

Any methods on whether double would be lead directing or lead averting? I'm assuming lead directing, so I'm gonna try something else. I hate leading from either red suit holding (particularly Jxxx). However, it doesn't seem like a spade is right on this hand, so I'm gonna lead one of them. I arbitrarily choose diamonds. Hope it works out.

[P_Marlowe]

Spade, partners suit.

If my partners lead anything else, they better get
it right.

Marlowe

[Double !]

the way I understand it, partner had a chance to ask more emphatically for a spade lead when lho bid 3S. IMO, failure to dbl 3S kind of implies that P spade suit isn't good enough to strongly recommend a spade lead. So maybe something else is better?

[P_Marlowe]

Double !, on Jul 4 2005, 01:37 PM, said:

the way I understand it, partner had a chance to ask more emphatically for a spade lead when lho bid 3S. IMO, failure to dbl 3S kind of implies that P spade suit isn't good enough to strongly recommend a spade lead. So maybe something else is better?

Hi,

it depends on partners options, he may have bid 2C, showing
a 2-suiter, maybe they play, that 5-4 is sufficient, in this case,
1S practically denied a 4 card heart suit.
Which would mean heart will only yield 3 tricks at best.

All things being equal, and neither alternative (diamonds and hearts
looks really convincing), I lead partners suit, I have a 2nd card, in
case I gain the lead, to continue.

Partner does not know, that I hold 2 kings, i.e. he does not know,
that the slam try by opener is borderline or that the 1 NT response is
minimum, i.e. he may just have refrained from doubling, because he
feared overtricks.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[ochinko]

The meaning of the (not given) double of 3Sp is a matter of partnership agreement. It could be "don't lead spades". If we don't have an agreement, I'd just assume that partner has minimum values, and don't have anything further to bid, but I still don't think that failure to dbl should be treated as a wish for another lead. Perhaps partner doesn't want to raise my hopes too high, that I'd double 3NT?

I almost never lead in partner's suit when I'm single, but here I have two spades, and we still have more in that suit than the opps. Why jump in the dark with a heart lead? Yes, if dummy is void I have conceded one trick, but otherwise partner is already marked for all possible spade finesses.

The only problem is that my highest spade is too small, and partner could surrender Kxxxx. Now that would hurt.

And let's really think about the postmortem. Which is more likely to shake our partner till the rest of the tourney - failure to set because we didn't lead his suit, or because we didn't find the alternative lead?

Petko

[civill]

IMO they have good stoppers in ♠,and the responder might have 4 card ♥ suit without enough HCPs to 2/1.So I would lead ♦2,a typical passive one.

[FrancesHinden]

I admit that if this hand had been posted here, and a spade beat the contract, I would be heaping scorn on anyone who didn't lead a spade.

At the table, I thought that hearts were likely to be 4333 or partner might have 4 (we virtually always overcall 1S with 54 in the majors), and that declarer seemed marked with a lot of spade stuff. It looked more a restrict-the-overtricks hand than a beat-the-contract effort with a slam try on my left and Kxx clubs under dummy. So I led a heart to try and make like difficult - declarer may well want to play spades himself, and dummy could have a void.

Anyway, a heart is a absolute goal:

Scoring: MP

---

(I don't agree with dummy's 3S bid, I would have just raised to 3NT. A diamond also beats it, but it is probably a bit tougher).

I asked partner why he didn't double 3S, and he said that he expected a spade lead over 90% of the time anyway, and that if I chose not to lead a spade I was most likely to lead a heart from a 5- or 6-card suit, which he would be very happy with.

[flytoox]

FrancesHinden, on Jul 5 2005, 09:24 AM, said:

I admit that if this hand had been posted here, and a spade beat the contract, I would be heaping scorn on anyone who didn't lead a spade.

At the table, I thought that hearts were likely to be 4333 or partner might have 4 (we virtually always overcall 1S with 54 in the majors), and that declarer seemed marked with a lot of spade stuff. It looked more a restrict-the-overtricks hand than a beat-the-contract effort with a slam try on my left and Kxx clubs under dummy. So I led a heart to try and make like difficult - declarer may well want to play spades himself, and dummy could have a void.

Anyway, a heart is a absolute goal:

Scoring: MP

---

(I don't agree with dummy's 3S bid, I would have just raised to 3NT. A diamond also beats it, but it is probably a bit tougher).

I asked partner why he didn't double 3S, and he said that he expected a spade lead over 90% of the time anyway, and that if I chose not to lead a spade I was most likely to lead a heart from a 5- or 6-card suit, which he would be very happy with.

3S is rediculous I must say.

[Double !]

so, heart lead did well?

[Echognome]

FrancesHinden, on Jul 5 2005, 10:24 AM, said:

Anyway, a heart is a absolute goal:

Scoring: MP

---

(I don't agree with dummy's 3S bid, I would have just raised to 3NT. A diamond also beats it, but it is probably a bit tougher).

Diamond doesn't beat it (unfortunately for my selection) as it gives the vital second entry to hand for the repeated club finesse. (9 overtaken by 10, Q overtaken by K) However, it's a difficult play to find, so perhaps it beats it in practice.

[Winstonm]

[FrancesHinden]

Winstonm, on Jul 6 2005, 09:55 AM, said:

On a heart lead, if East wins and returns a heart, West must duck to keep the lines of communication open. South then has to cash the AQ of diamonds, stripping East of his exit cards, then lead a heart from dummy. West can do no better after cashing the 4th heart than return a diamond - South wins in hand and finesses the Club, then leads a spade- no matter what East does, South will get back to hand with the Spade king to repeat the club finesse. (south pitches club on the 4th heart).

When choosing the opening lead I thought I was looking for the best chance to hold it to 3. Your analysis is true, but I still think the heart lead was the (or my) best chance to beat it in practice.

We play attitude leads*, so that declarer might be entitled to believe that the heart lead was from a 5-card suit as the opening leader must have at least two spades given East's silence. In that case the heart exit is suicidal, and declarer's best chance (the one he played for) is that the CK is short onside, or that hearts are 5-2 and the CK is offside.


*and yet ANOTHER good advertisement for attitude leads

[Winstonm]

FrancesHinden, on Jul 6 2005, 10:46 AM, said:

Winstonm, on Jul 6 2005, 09:55 AM, said:

On a heart lead, if East wins and returns a heart, West must duck to keep the lines of communication open.  South then has to cash the AQ of diamonds, stripping East of his exit cards, then lead a heart from dummy.  West can do no better after cashing the 4th heart than return a diamond - South wins in hand and finesses the Club, then leads a spade- no matter what East does, South will get back to hand with the Spade king to repeat the club finesse.  (south pitches club on the 4th heart).

When choosing the opening lead I thought I was looking for the best chance to hold it to 3. Your analysis is true, but I still think the heart lead was the (or my) best chance to beat it in practice.

We play attitude leads*, so that declarer might be entitled to believe that the heart lead was from a 5-card suit as the opening leader must have at least two spades given East's silence. In that case the heart exit is suicidal, and declarer's best chance (the one he played for) is that the CK is short onside, or that hearts are 5-2 and the CK is offside.


*and yet ANOTHER good advertisement for attitude leads

ROFLOL. Yes, I was looking at it double dummy, for sure. But the laughter is because I've played attitude lead verses NT for years - better IMO to make declarer sweat than give him all that count information. Now at suits, WE are the ones who need count so there I utilize 3rd and low.

WinstonM