[wank]

No-one vul

XXX
Jt9xx
XX
XXX

Rho opens 1nt, lho raises to 3, partner bids 4s, rho passes, lho bids 4nt to play, rho bids 5d.

[eagles123]

J heart

[ahydra]

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Don't see any reason to not lead a spade - assuming RHO hasn't psyched or misunderstood, the 4NT and 5D suggest that LHO has the spade stop so we lead through it. A heart looks far too slow against a 5-level contract.

ahydra

[nige1]

Swiss Trams Lead 2. Assuming the auction on the left, I rank
1. ♥ Perhaos we need some fast ♥ winners.
2. ♦. Cuts down ruffs, when declarer has psyched 1N which seems likely.
3. Top ♠. But dummy's stop might be ♠AK and declarer seems to have psyched 1N with short ♠s.
4. ♣. Probably dummy's suit,

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[Tramticket]

The auction doesn't really compute. Partner has seven+ spades for his bid. I have three spades. South has two spades for the 1NT. North has a decent stop. there are too many spades and it seems that someone has psyched Probably south since he blinked first.

Jack of hearts.

[The_Badger]

Director!

I'm trying to make sense of South's 1NT, then forcing (or should that be 'forced') pass, then 5♦.

A ♠ doesn't incur the wrath of partner, but the ♥J might get you a free drink in the bar afterwards. You're likely to be on lead once so its the only lead that may cause a headache for declarer, I feel

[kuhchung]

HJ looks clear to me, spade seems unlikely to be productive

[rmnka447]

I'm leading a ♠.

Partner has to beat this hand, if it's beatable. Yeah, partner may have 7 ♠, but I can't know that for sure. I'd hate to find out that both opener and responder had doubletons and failure to lead a ♠ allowed declarer to pitch to avoid a ♠ loser.

[Winstonm]

I think it might take a club lead to beat this. The only way I can make sense of the auction is if RHO opened a 1363 hand, meaning he holds stiff K of spades. LHO bid NT to play so He must have Ax?

Maybe partner has: QJ1098xx, x, xx, AKJ

[gszes]

Having no good reason to assume ANYTHING will work, I will lead a spade (partner's suit). Which spade hmmm let's see if one of those xxx is the T/9/8 (in case lho has something like K32) I will try that (since it just might allow me to retain the lead) else I will make the conventional lead that gives count according to your system.

[Jinksy]

Something is weird about the auction, but a psyche doesn't feel like it would explain it. What type of hand would S have psyched on first in? Presumably something very weak (say, < 5 points, and in a serious game I would guess less than that), or it becomes substantially more likely to be his partnership he's cheating out of something. But we're also basically bust, and LHO presumably doesn't have a 16-count - even on many 15 counts, he might have gone slam hunting.

On those assumptions, P should have at least 19 points, and we already know he's got an excellent and/or very long spade suit so 3N rates to come crashing down on any lead (if he thinks S psyched) or on a spade lead (if he thinks N bid on a long minor), so why couldn't he double for a short suit lead (which would also be likely to reveal it if South had psyched)? And even if he was wary then, *surely* having shown his suit he can then double 4N (not to mention 5♦)? Also, wouldn't south often pass an undoubled 4N rather than 'reveal' the psyche?

So I'm playing N/S for having the closest thing to what they've shown that makes any sense, which presumably means a 2362 or 2272 hand from south and some kind of spade stop and long suit with north. It might still be right to lead the J♥ to hope to retain control, but since S presumably has 2 small spades, but opened 1N, he's surely a favourite to have a heart honour.

Put me down for the pedestrian spade lead.

[wank]

Rho's forcing pass should be a solid shortish stop, like ax,axx or kx. With a bag of ***** he's supposed to just take the money out of 4s. Lho should have a good minor for 4nt. Considering Rho's subsequent pull to 5d, I put lho with clubs and rho with something like kx XXx aqjxxx ax. Thinking we couldn't reasonably have 2 cashing spades, I took the opportunity to lead through dummy's hoped for king of hearts.

In fact rho has been absurd. He's got qj aqxx kqxx qxx. Lho has XX kx ajtxxx kjx. I don't know who rho was but this was the final of 3 day Swiss in Toronto so I naively expected something sensible.

With partner's aktxxx spades and an ace I'd just smack 3nt myself.

Despite the egg that was all over my face at the end I'm entirely happy with my logic here.

[Jinksy]

wank, on 2017-August-04, 23:51, said:

With partner's aktxxx spades and an ace I'd just smack 3nt myself.

Interestingly against 3N undoubled I would lead a spade, whereas after the double I'd lead a diamond. After reading Bird and Anthias' books, I wonder if a double of 3N should specifically call for a minor suit lead, since you're so unlikely to get one otherwise.

[Tramticket]

wank, on 2017-August-04, 23:51, said:

Rho's forcing pass should be a solid shortish stop, like ax,axx or kx. With a bag of ***** he's supposed to just take the money out of 4s. Lho should have a good minor for 4nt. Considering Rho's subsequent pull to 5d, I put lho with clubs and rho with something like kx XXx aqjxxx ax. Thinking we couldn't reasonably have 2 cashing spades, I took the opportunity to lead through dummy's hoped for king of hearts.

In fact rho has been absurd. He's got qj aqxx kqxx qxx. Lho has XX kx ajtxxx kjx. I don't know who rho was but this was the final of 3 day Swiss in Toronto so I naively expected something sensible.

With partner's aktxxx spades and an ace I'd just smack 3nt myself.

Despite the egg that was all over my face at the end I'm entirely happy with my logic here.

Thanks for these problems - very instructive.

The inference that RHO must have a stop for the pass makes sense and was something that I didn't pick up.