Kaitlyn S

While I agree with your main argument, wouldn't East just raise 2NT to 3NT with each of these hands; not bothering to bid 3C on the way?

Many of the people that used that method have aged to the point where this is physically difficult.

This thread has given me an idea for a future "Bidding Problems for I/N players" :)

I agree with Tramticket - I believe that expert standard has this 3S bid showing better spades, i.e. you would be willing to play 6S opposite a singleton with sufficient strength, and th 1S-2C-2S is forcing even not playing 2/1 GF. That being said, many of my students would get to 6S exactly the way you describe. Side note: Quite clever to have responder bidding Blackwood instead of opener to avoid a double of a 5H response :D

Many enjoy using BBO's "Help Me Find A Game" feature to play here. How many of those do you think have discussed the meaning of a double of 3H? I don't discuss it because I don't think I have to; I presume everyone plays takeout. (Admittedly, I'm guessing over 4H or 4S but it happens seldom enough that I think there are more important agreements to discuss in 30 seconds.) But this is BBO and "without agreement" might very well be normal in those rooms. In fact, I have played in several competitive team matches on BBO and have never once discussed that auction with a first-time partner.

Doesn't 3S show three cards in 2/1?

I think you remember the auction wrong. It's 1D-1S-2C-2H-2NT-3C-3S-3NT-P. Responder went back to 3NT. I'm learning a lot from this problem - frankly a lot of the comments being made on BridgeWinners surprise me but these are players who play a lot more than I do so they probably know what they're talking about (and certainly Kit Woolsey knows what he's talking about.)

Lead from 75, Q7432, AKJ2, T5 update from Bridgewinners: The high diamond leaders have taken the lead! There are 20 of them. 19 votes for a low heart. 1 vote for the ♥7. 3 votes for "I would have led a low heart but you convinced me to lead the H7." 2 votes for "I would have led a high diamond but you convinced me to lead the H7." 2 votes for "I'm not sure." 15 abstentions. 6 votes for "other". I suspect that I will no longer gain any support for the H7 since Kit Woolsey stated that if dummy had ♥J9x and declarer had ♥AT, partner would not play the ♥K and might cede the ninth trick. Apparently he has a far different opinion than I do about the likelihood of declarer getting nine tricks without the benefit of a heart trick. He suggests leading the ♥Q which can hardly cost if declarer has two hearts - when partner either sees the ♥J in dummy or later from declarer's hand, he'll know that it was from queen empty. However, this does mean that a significant number of people would lead the ♥3 or ♥2 which makes a lot of my earlier posts (which assume partner should lead the ♥7 when you have four cashing diamond tricks) invalid. However, I still believe that playing declarer for ♥Qx is more likely to win than playing declarer for five small diamonds.

If North holds ♥AQxx, his bidding is very strange (either the 2C bid or the 3S bid.)

Current results (of the updated poll): 11 people lead a low heart and are unconvinced 7 people lead a high diamond and unconvinced 2 people would have led a low heart and are now leading the ♥7 1 person would have led a high diamond and is now leading the ♥7 Nobody would have led the H7 originally And unfortunately, Paul has hijacked my lead discussion into a Fourth Suit Forcing bidding discussion :(

Yes indeed, if I know my partner is going to defend double dummy, I need not lead the H7 to suggest a switch as any heart would work as well.

Not against this auction; however, on this particular hand where declarer bid 3S and is almost certainly 2-2 in the majors, partner is marked with five hearts.

I would hope that if this was declarer's hand, partner would have led a higher heart than the ♥3 to suggest the "obvious" from seeing dummy diamond return. However, BridgeWinners players don't seem to agree with that assessment. According to one of our top players, 20 of 24 of them are morons. One of those "morons" is another top BBO poster, who wrote a detailed answer telling me why I (and also Timo) are wrong and suggested that I am overthinking the problem. I was brought back to those dark days in the Water Cooler when the same poster would spend a fair amount of energy telling me how misguided and brainwashed I am. (Come to think of it... oh, maybe I should quit while I'm ahead :D) So I have to concede that while I would have led a higher heart if declarer held that hand, that I am playing with another human being and most of them would not lead a higher heart, even after hearing the arguments for the higher heart lead. So while I don't think declarer should hold that hand based on partner's low heart lead, most players good enough to use BridgeWinners as a resource lead a low heart from the hand you are giving partner, so perhaps I am too quick to rule it out. However, Timo brings up another good point - you are giving partner ♥Qxxxx and ♦AKJx and partner didn't overcall at game all. In the original problem, I was not a passed hand, so a heart overcall seems perfectly normal (I changed the conditions of contest to make the heart overcall less attractive when posting to BridgeWinners, but I still would bid 1H.)

Not at all. I am leading the ♥7 on this hand simply because I have figured out that I can't beat this hand by running hearts. On a different auction or a with a different hand, where it was possible that the contract could be beat by setting up and running hearts, I would lead the ♥3 like everyone else.

Answers: 1. [hv=pc=n&s=skq5hakjdqj65ca94&n=s973hq64dat92cKt5&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=2np3nppp]266|200[/hv] West leads the ♠4. East plays the ♠J. Do you hold up? How do you play the diamond suit? Hint: You can make your contract by playing diamonds. What can hurt you? Can you do anything about it? Answer: Your winners are three hearts, one diamond, and two clubs. You also have one spade trick if you want it, or you can promote a spade trick later. You can promote two more tricks in diamonds, and can finesse in diamonds so that if West has the ♦K, you won't lose the lead. It is when East has the ♦K that your contract is in danger. Only the spade suit can set you. If you win this first trick, West holds the ♠A and ♠10 left and if he started with five spades, East could win the ♦K and lead his only remaining spade through your finessable honor and West will run the suit to set you. Once you see the problem, preventing it is easy. Don't win the first spade. With the ♠KQ holding intact, there's no way West can run enough spades since E-W can clear the spade suit but East won't have any spades left to lead upon winning the ♦K. I specified IMPs, but I would play the same way at matchpoints. 2. [hv=pc=n&s=skq5hkqjdaj65ca94&n=s973ha64dqt92ckt5&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=2np3nppp]266|200[/hv] West leads the ♠4. East plays the ♠J. Do you hold up? How do you play the diamond suit? Hint: You can make your contract by playing diamonds. What can hurt you? Can you do anything about it? Answer: Again, your winners are three hearts, one diamond, and two clubs, and will get a spade trick. Again, you can promote two more diamonds, but tis time it is only West that can obtain the lead (if East has the ♦K, you will lead high honors from the dummy until East covers.) If you hold up, East can lead his remaining spade, West can win the ace and lead a third spade, and he will have two good small spades, with the ♦K as his entry to cash them. What happens if you win the first trick (say with the ♠K? You have the ♠Q5 left, and since West is the only one who can gain the lead in diamonds, your ♠Q is protected from attack. West can cash his ace and let your queen win, or West can lead low and your queen stops. Either way, you'll make an overtrick, and West is better off leading another suit to hold you to nine tricks (although that might not be his best play to try to set the contract.) Why did I suggest winning with the ♠K instead of the ♠Q? Again, I would play the same way at IMPs or matchpoints. 3. [hv=pc=n&s=skq5hakjdqj65ca94&n=s3hq64dat982cKt52&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=2np3nppp]266|200[/hv] West leads the ♠4. East plays the ♠J. Do you hold up? How do you play the diamond suit? Hint: You can make your contract by playing diamonds. What can hurt you? Can you do anything about it? Can you increase your chances that the wrong defender doesn't gain the lead? Answer: Again, your winners are three hearts, one diamond, and two clubs, and will get a spade trick. This time you can promote three more diamonds and can, if you wish, keep West out of the lead. However, the ♠4 lead tells you that the opponents' spades are split 5-4 (there's only one spade lower than the ♠4 in the opponents' hands, so West should have four or five spades.) If East has the ♦K, you can't stop him from leading a spade through your remaining honor if you win trick 1, and you can't prevent the run of spades if you hold up at trick 1. Or can you? It's really too bad that the player that I could lose to isn't West. If West was the one who gained the lead in diamonds, I could win the first spade, protecting my spade holding. I don't mind if West wins the ♦K, but it's curtains if East wins it. Since I don't mind if West wins the ♦K, perhaps I should ignore the finesse and play the ♦A! First, win the first trick. Lead the ♦Q to tempt West to cover, but when he doesn't, play the ♦A. On a good day, you drop the singleton ♦K and take eleven tricks. If the ♦K doesn't drop, keep leading diamonds and hope West wins the ♦K since your spades will be protected if West gains the lead. You will have given up the second overtrick that was available by taking a winning diamond finesse, but that's a small price to pay to make your contract when East's ♦K is singleton. At matchpoints, I would not make this play; I would simply take the diamond finesse. Everyone will be playing in 3NT, and you can't afford to make ten tricks when everybody else is making eleven; you get the same matchpoint result as if you went down 1100. While you will go down on a contract that you could have made when East has a singleton ♦K, that singleton king doesn't happen enough to give up a trick that the other South players will get the half the time that West holds the ♦K.

So far, we have 18 votes for the ♥3, 2 votes for the ♥2, 4 votes for the ♦K. I'm somewhat shocked that I'm the lone ♥7 leader. Let's see how much luck I have convincing people. Can I convince anyone? On BridgeWinners

I'd like to add to this analysis - if partner's only card is the ♥A, then partner needs to get the benefit of the heart information without the benefit of a Smith Echo, and the defense must get their five tricks before declarer takes a bunch of black suit winners. Only the ♥7 lead gets partner in, while emphasizing that the leader's strength lies outside hearts. (The ♦K works as well, except in the cases where it blocks the suit.)

Actually, I am advocating for the ♥7 lead. Right now, I have no company :(

Of course, MrAce is correct - the first question I should have asked is "are we playing Smith or reverse Smith echo or neither?" The opening lead question is not without interest. I've sent it to a friend to post on BridgeWinners. EDIT: The early results (56 minutes) are kind of disappointing. 1 vote for the DK 1 vote for the H2 (leading fifth best playing fourth best!) 5 votes for the H3 1 abstain (probably would have overcalled 1H?) 1 vote for the H7 (because I made him!)

While I'm not inclined to agree that their bidding was reasonable, I have to admit that it is far more often that I learn from your posts than that I disagree with them. On this hand, I think that (a) East should play in a black suit once West bids 3S (otherwise why bother bidding 3S at all and telling the defenders about your shape?), (b) West with a single short heart stopper and awful diamonds should retreat from notrump after East has shown a "black hand", and © after North leads the recommended ♥7 on your example hand. South should find the correct defense, making E-W pay for not reaching 4S. Am I being unduly harsh? Probably. If any of my "advanced" students had the above auction with your hands, I would be satisfied. Somebody mentioned "good club players" so I'm assuming that means above student level. I would also think a student would lead the H3 and not return a diamond with the South hand after partner led the H7.

Another interesting question: You hold 75, Q7432, AKJ2, T5 on lead against 1D-1S-2C-2H-2NT-3C-3S-3NT. The opponents must have game going strength, so if your partner has a top heart, they have little else of value and the opponents are going to take tons of black suit tricks. So if you want to set 3NT you have to assume that partner has a black card (because the DQ isn't enough.) Given that you need partner to have a black suit entry (meaning that the opponents have two heart stoppers), and that the opponents probably have lots of black suit tricks once they regain the lead, why on earth would you emphasize hearts by leading the ♥3? When partner gets in, you don't want him to play hearts because it's unlikely to beat the contract! You need partner to have a diamond holding that will beat the contract; either ♦Qx or ♦T9x. So wouldn't you lead the ♥7? If partner led the ♥3 on this layout, it's his own fault that I didn't find a diamond return. EDIT to add: This shows the value of thinking before making the opening lead. When I saw your post, my first thought was that North should lead a top diamond to tell partner where you lived (since partner's likely only getting in once.) Looking deeper into the situation showed that this lead wouldn't work if partner had either ♦Qx or ♦T9x, making the H7 lead far better. While the H7 may give up a trick, it's unlikely to give up the ninth trick (plenty of tricks should be available in the black suits) and a "passive" black suit lead could prove disastrous if it finds a card for declarer (for example the ♣Q or the ♠J.)

West didn't rebid 1NT because he was afraid of diamonds, and decided to rebid 2C instead which emphasizes the diamonds? EDIT: You changed the layout! OK while some would rebid 1NT with this, I agree on the new layout (with five diamonds) that many would bid 2C. So I have to resort to my previous argument that a "good club player" wouldn't let 3NT sit with this hand. Why would he let it set with ♥Qx? Probably because that's a less good holding for play in 5C. If partner didn't have good enough spades to bid 4S over 3S and has at most the king in clubs, partner needs strength elsewhere, which (because of the 3NT call over 3S) is probably in hearts.

I did specify it, apparently in the post that never got saved :D Yes, IMPs. (And yes, I realize that does matter on at least one of these problems. More experienced players can try to figure out which one.)

Play Problem Set 2 is available. It's a continuation of the holdup series and is tougher than the first set. Hold Up or Not? Part 2

A third problem was added.