[Chamaco]

Hi all and merry xmas and happy new year !

This thread (and a few companions) are about "unusual" opening leads, e.g. leads that beginners textbook suggest to avoid.

Yet, sometimes we see experts making them.
If experts make them, there must be a reason, so they cannot be *always* bad, but there must be specific details that help suggest when they might work.

So, I'd like to know from the experts which are the "symptoms", the details that help to diagnose when a lead that is usually "bad" could be considered.

Please avoid posting "diagnostic details" such as "table feel", "intuition" or "state of the match" What I'd really like to know is if there are diagnostic details to recognize by deductive thinking from the bidding and our own holding
If you have any example about some such decisions, all the better !

Thanks

Mauro

===========================

The second issue is:

Under which circumstances might it be ok to lead a suit where dummy has advertised length and strength ?

[pclayton]

1. When you suspect that Dummy doesn't have an outside entry and you are trying to cut declarer off from the suit.

2. When you have trump control (and #1 is in effect).

3. When you are short in the suit yourself.

4. If you suspect pard is short. If you have trump control, so much the better.

5. When you don't fear declarer needing a few pitches from dummy's high cards in the suit, but rather needs to run the entire suit. An example of this might be that you have good stoppers in declarer's side suits.

6. Leading dummy's strong suit is a more common theme against slams than it is against part scores.

[Winstonm]

Against NT in particular, the object under normal circumstances is to try to establish length tricks - the longest and best fit of the combined hands. Sometimes the bidding suggests that partner holds length in a bid suit and sometimes it can be inferred.

When it is highly likely that RHO is short in the suit that appears right to attack, it is often best to lead an honor card from holdings such as Kxx to "pin" the card in declarer's hand.

Against NT, when you hold the preponderance of the outstanding high cards and no long suit of your own, leaving precious little for partner to contribute other than length, it is can sometimes be right to make an unblocking lead such as the Q from AQx.

If it's right to lead a trump, lead it regardless of your holding - if it's right, whatever trick you lose will come back and more often than not with interest.

As for part two, about the only time this would be right is when you are trying for a communication-disruption play, stripping declarer of entry cards to the long suit before trumps can be drawn. This usually requires four things: shortness in the led suit (equal or near equal declarer's length), trump control, short trumps in dummy (a holding like 10x), and no outside entry for dummy. Of all the unusual leads, this is by far the hardest to find successfully because it takes so many things right and it is usually based on speculation; however, if RHO has opened and LHO has made a 2/1 and then later both players rebid their suits before finally settling in opener's suit, and you have nothing much except Axx of trumps and a doubleton in responder's suit - that may be the time to try it.

Winston