[jocdelevat]

Last night my pard (pick up) led his singleton even during the auction I bid a suit. The suit contract could be set if he led my suit.
In general I saw most b/i players prefer to lead the singleton when defend a suit contract.

[helene_t]

Usually it's better to lead p's suit. Maybe the b/i players you refer to are used to a liberal overcall style that does not suggest a good suit, but even then I would more often lead p's suit. Sometimes you can infer that p must have HCPs outside his suit and is therefore more likely to have the ace of you singleton suits, but those cases are rare.

Honoring the information that p conveys is not only technically a good thing, it also makes the game more enjoyable for both partners.

[BillHiggin]

Leading a singleton against a suit contract is often a good choice. Leading partner's suit is often a good choice (and has the added benefit that you can never be blamed if it is wrong).
If you spend time watching the jec matches (a worthwhile activity), you will have plenty of opportunities to hear Larry Lande list "Benito's four rules". Those are:
1) You need a good excuse not to lead trumps
2) If you don't lead a singleton, you have not got one
3) Every card on defense should mean something
4) These rules have exceptions, you must learn them

Number 4 may be the most important - for instance, leading a singleton trump (#1 and #2) is not such a great thing to do, and leading partner's suit may be better than trump or singleton leads.

At the B/I level, players have not enough experience yet to always get it right (world class players do not always get it right). Your partner made a reasonable choice, and it did not work today. That adds to their experience and if they think about the whole hand, maybe they will see some clue that might have led them to the winning choice. If so, then they have more experience than they did before this hand. At least they did not forsake your suit to lead some other doubleton or (horror) from three small of some other suit. Once your partner's start making the best lead choices on a consistent basis, they will be moving out of the BIL.

[helene_t]

Sounds as if I was wrong. I will pay more attention to this issue when reading lead problem discussions. Thanks, Justin.

[jillybean]

I always remember hearing this somewhere on forum

'If you dont lead a stiff you aint got one'

oh I see this has been said already

[ralph23]

One time it's wrong to lead a singleton is when, from the auction, partner is known to be so broke that there is no way he will get the lead. However, your partner overcalled. Hence, he's not broke. No reason he can't have the Ace of that suit.

This time it didn't work out. Oh well. That does not prove it was wrong or a mistake.

[jocdelevat]

Oh I thought the lead was wrong and I told my pard the joke:(told b4 by world class player but not sure if was the right context) "if i bid clubs do you lead hearts" and pard got upset.

[Fluffy]

I refuse leading singletons when something else avaible, but I have had bad results due to it before.

[mikeh]

I am with Justin on this; altho (as I am sure he agrees) you do have to pay attention to the auction. Sometimes the auction tells you to do something different. I would rarely, for instance, lead a stiff into declarer's second (or first, if playing in his second) suit. But rarely is not never (if I knew I could gain the lead early in trump, for example, and then try to get to partner.. but it all depends on the hand, and the auction).

[Quantumcat]

I was taught:

- Partner has to have the balance of the strength between you (to get in to give ruffs)

- You have to not have natural trump tricks (like if you had KTxx you'd lead your long suit to force decl and get extra trick in trumps)

- the auction mustn't have called for something else (fairly obvious)

[vuroth]

To me, this sounds like a better-than-average time to lead a singleton. When it works, the problem is usually finding a way BACK to partner's hand on trick 3. Since partner has overcalled, that part should be easier.

[jtfanclub]

jocdelevat, on Oct 20 2007, 04:23 PM, said:

Last night my pard (pick up) led his singleton even during the auction I bid a suit. The suit contract could be set if he led my suit.
In general I saw most b/i players prefer to lead the singleton when defend a suit contract.

I may be weird, but....

If my partner bid 1♠ over dealer's 1♥, I would lead a singleton. I would expect partner has some strength elsewhere, and it could easily be in trumps or the singleton suit.

But if my partner bid 2♠ over dealer's 1♥, then I would lead his suit. The implication with a Weak Jump Overcall is that partner does not have quick tricks outside of his suit, and I need quick tricks to use a singleton.

But maybe that's just me.

[manudude03]

I generally don't like leading singletons outside your partner's suit. The fact they're bidding something else suggests they don't have great length in that suit, making the opponments have a double fit. Do you really want to help establish that second suit?

That's just the way I think of things.