[Little Kid]

Scoring: XIMP

1♥-1♠
3♦-4♥

---

You are South and the opponents bid to 4♥ without interference from your side (they are playing ACOL). 3♦ shows at least 5-4 and GF. The opponents are +- intermediate club players, what do you lead and why?

[Free]

I'd definitely lead a ♣. A small ♣ might well be the best lead, but it's a gamble. So, you wanna gamble?

[gnasher]

There's too much risk that a club will give declarer his 10th trick. I'd lead a spade, hoping to create a force.

There are arguments for any of the three cards: the jack is what partner expects me to lead from this holding; the king might pin the queen (although declarer is unlikely to run the jack around to his singleton queen) and might save partner a guess if he's looking at the ace over dummy's queen; the ten might scare declarer into declining a finesse, since he doesn't know that he has a trump loser. I'd lead an unimaginative jack.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2009-September-24, 06:54

[Fluffy]

I am also leading ♠J, don't think we are on any hurry with the clubs.

[pooltuna]

Little Kid, on Sep 24 2009, 04:30 AM, said:

Scoring: XIMP

1♥-1♠
3♦-4♥

---

You are South and the opponents bid to 4♥ without interference from your side (they are playing ACOL). 3♦ shows at least 5-4 and GF. The opponents are +- intermediate club players, what do you lead and why?

Well I think we can eliminate a ♦ and a ♣ so our choices are the J♥ or the J♠. The J♥ will be best if this is a crossruff hand and the J♠ otherwise. My inclination is to lead the♠ since LHO did not raise ♥ immediately but instead chose a fast arrival 4♥ bid later in the auction.

[655321]

♠J for me too.

Would not consider a club from this holding unless much more desperate, don't like a trump lead here, a diamond is possible but it seems a bit sad to have to lead a small doubleton in declarer's second suit. So a spade is all that is left.

[andy_h]

At first glance it seems like I want to lead a diamond for a 'safe' lead but the auction says otherwise. I don't want to help declarer guess his second suit as it will give him tempo due to the bad heart break. The spade suit looks much more appealing to me as opposed to a club so I'm hoping to tap declarer.

[nige1]

Little Kid, on Sep 24 2009, 04:30 AM, said:

Scoring: XIMP

1♥-1♠
3♦-4♥
 

---

You are South and the opponents bid to 4♥ without interference from your side (they are playing ACOL). 3♦ shows at least 5-4 and GF. The opponents are +- intermediate club players, what do you lead and why?

IMO ♣A = 10, ♥5 = 8, ♥J = 7, ♠J = 5, ♦7 = 4

[Jlall]

SJ is all day, you set up a spade trick possibly, set up a tap possibly, take away an option immediately before he can decide what to do (dummy with AQ, him with a stiff), and more importantly you have NO OTHER POSSIBLE LEAD!

[P_Marlowe]

The Ace.

It is the unbid suit, partner will have virtually nothing, but maybe
he has the Queen or the King of clubs, and I would like to get a
forcing defence going.
Maybe I will even have a chance to recover with a switch.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Little Kid]

Scoring: XIMP

---

This was the full hand. I disliked a club because I didn't think it was going anywhere anyway. A diamond lead might give up tempo and give declarer a free hook into partner's diamond holding, so that was out too. So to me it looked like choice between the majors. I eventually decided to go for a trump because I feared the opponents might cross ruff and that the winners in the other suits would give us enough tempo for a switch if necessary. For some random reason (don't ask why ), I ended up putting the ♥T on the table. This went to the Queen and the ♥9 was ducked to my Jack. I played my King of spades next for -1, relieved my poor lead wouldn't cost us a game swing.

Other than the lead problem, I posted this hand because I was wondering if there is any merit in leading the T from JT8x in trumps when the opponents have an 8/9-card fit and you desperately need a passive lead. If all other suits look like they will hand declarer the contract or you need to lead a trump to cut down ruffs, would you ever consider it? Or is it better to just lead an honest J of trumps in that situation and hope things go ok whilst keeping partner informed of what is going on?

[gnasher]

Did declarer not notice that your partner showed out?

[jdonn]

I think I would lead king of spades, for the reasons gnasher states in its favor.

[Little Kid]

gnasher, on Sep 28 2009, 02:19 AM, said:

Did declarer not notice that your partner showed out?

I was as surprised as you were to win the trick!