[gwnn]

Team game, all white.

Partner deals and passes.

p-(1♦)-3♣-(X)
p-(3♠)-p-(4♠)-ppp

what do you lead from

Scoring: IMP

---

?

[Free]

♥

[brianshark]

Big ♣.

[gwnn]

18 votes and no reasons given? was everyone's choice so trivial?

[MFA]

I'll go for my singleton. After all, I did preempt, so declarer is likely get the suit right anyway.

[jtfanclub]

gwnn, on Feb 27 2007, 12:50 PM, said:

18 votes and no reasons given? was everyone's choice so trivial?

OK, fine. I lead the ace of clubs. I don't think ruffing one diamond will gain me a trick (given the auction, which way are they going to play the spades?). If they have a club void, I'll regret it. If not, I can always look at the board and decide if I should lead a diamond next, or if partner's hand is likely entryless and therefore I should just hope for a club ruff.

[whereagles]

My feeling says "lead a diam"

[mike777]

D, my stiff, attack.

[P_Marlowe]

The Ace, just let me have a look at the table.

If you lead the singleton (into openers tenance),
you bet, that partner has the Ace, and this wont
even be enough to beat the contract.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Free]

How long does a "quick" poll last?

[kenberg]

Reasons? I have to have reasons? OK, I'll try. I led the stiff diamond. My preference would be to not lead, but I must. I regard a heart lead as the side suit most likely to give declarer a trick he can't or wouldn't get on his own. If a spade lead is right I am sorry but I am just not that smart. It's down to clubs and diamonds, and I guess a diamond. I can think of several arguments against that lead. Besides helping declarer play that suit it might also persuade him to shun the trump finesse to his J and, instead, bang down the AK. However the same applies to the ace and another club. If it goes to the ace and I get my ruff, I hope I can decipher the meaning of the diamond spot partner returns. We do need four tricks, not three.

[the hog]

H. S/t D is likely to pick up the suit. CA may well blow a trick.

[gwnn]

Free, on Feb 28 2007, 02:17 AM, said:

How long does a "quick" poll last?

Til now

Scoring: IMP

---

The ♣A lead cost our side 10 IMP's. For me it doesn't seem like a good choice as declarer seems to have the king (dummy rates to be short, and partner weak) and most of the time when he's got it we just blew a trick...

As a "fun double-dummy fact" (besides the red leads) ♠Q beats it and small ♠ doesn't.

[whereagles]

Actually, if a singleton ♦ is led, an alert declarer will make it 99% of the time...

Take the ♦A and lay down ♠A. Now East must unblock the ♠Q or declarer will strip him of red cards and exit with a low spade

[kenrexford]

LOL!

I was the sole "lead a spade" person (would elect the Queen if really forced to).

I did not mention this with explanation, because my real explanation would be that no one had elected to lead a spade, and the "obviously wrong" lead is often the winning lead in a good/fun posted lead problem.

Actually, that's not why I did not respond. I would take any silly position, and claimed it to be obvious, if I could make a good pitch for it without cracking up too much. I admittedly could not come up with a plausible reason for really leading a spade.

[Al_U_Card]

I chose to lead a heart and all of my reasons were of the negative type.

I won't lead from an Ace headed suit without an excellent reason.

I won't lead a stiff (their suit) unless I have a trump control.

I certainly won't lead a trump from Qx.

[kenberg]

whereagles, on Feb 28 2007, 09:17 AM, said:

Actually, if a singleton ♦ is led, an alert declarer will make it 99% of the time...

Take the ♦A and lay down ♠A. Now East must unblock the ♠Q or declarer will strip him of red cards and exit with a low spade

With the AK on the board I am not getting a spade trick unless partner has the Jack so I like to think I would toss the Queen but you are right that unless I am awake declarer can, and probably will, make the hand.

An interesting feature of the hand is that the point is not to grab four tricks early, that cannot be done, but rather to keep from giving declarer his tenth trick. These things are seldom unequivocal and I wouldn't be too hard on a partner who makes the wrong choice here. My thought that the heart suit was the most dangerous to lead (other than the outlandish Queen of spoades) was wrong, at least for this hand. But unless I am on my third glass of wine, I think I woould be up for tossing the Q. Easy to say.

[pclayton]

whereagles, on Feb 28 2007, 06:17 AM, said:

Actually, if a singleton ♦ is led, an alert declarer will make it 99% of the time...

Take the ♦A and lay down ♠A. Now East must unblock the ♠Q or declarer will strip him of red cards and exit with a low spade

A little DD, but reasonable. Declarer should opt for Qx over Q?? I think so with your club call.

The defense is easier playing obvious shift. An encouraging diamond would deny a ♣ card, so this hand can perhaps anticipate the endplay.

Note the importance of declarer leading spades twice out of hand, so 3rd hand can't indicate possession of the J-T by dropping the J early.

Another strike against the club lead is that, aside from compressing your club winners, pard may be ruffing with a natural trump trick.

[mikegill]

Heart for me. Looks like a 4-4 fit, so either declarer will be finessing into my sQ (unless AK happen to be on my left, which is 25% or less), or pard has a natural trump trick - either way I'm in no hurry to set up a ruff for him. If he has a stiff I will get to play a club later when I'm in. I'm not leading a diamond into declarer's suit. My low diamond will scream singleton and I would be ruffing with what looks like a natural trump trick. I might be ruffing pard's 3rd or 4th round diamond trick anyway. Heart is really unlikely to give anything away, and pard might have a holding that needs me to lead the suit more than once before diamond discards happen (QT8x, or KQx behind the A...etc). Declarer is going to play pard for the heart cards anyway since i preempted, so I'm really not giving away his Q even if I am.

[gwnn]

To strip LHO, declarer needs to know his heart length. Usually you wouldn't put him with a trebleton.