toothbrush Posted June 25, 2006 Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 Suppose opponents bid 1NT-3NT, partner leads A of a suit. The dummy has three small cards in the suit: 432. Do you unblock with the Q? Suppose that you play with a good player, and your agreements about leading and signalling are 'standard'. My father came to me with this problem. He thought it was obvious to play Q because against a NT-contract partner belongs to have AKJx(x). I told him I would play low, because I think partner can also lead A from AKTx(x),AK9(x), or even AKxx(x).I've thought about this for some time and I started to think that it may be necessary to make a special agreement about this. I wonder if there are players who have special agreements about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toothbrush Posted June 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 oops suppose dummy has 543 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke warm Posted June 25, 2006 Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 ideally the lead of either the ace or king should ask for an unblock... that aside, give partner 5 cards to the A,K... that gives declarer 3... your play of the Q seems correct here (unless declarer has JTx) since then partner can find your entry so you can come thru declarer's Jxx with your small card a lot of words to say that with Qx i'd unblock and hope i had an entry for pard to shift to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted June 25, 2006 Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 If you're going to lead one of those suits, I think the standard lead is 4th best, not one of the top honors. Against NT, you normally don't lead honors unless you have a longer sequence. And if you have a sequence with a single hole in it, you should lead the card above the hole, e.g. K from AKJTx. If partner holds the Q he can obviously tell that you're not leading the top of a sequence, so it most be a broken sequence like this and he should unblock it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted June 25, 2006 Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 My belief and understanding is that standardly the lead of an Ace against NT asks for a unblock with an honor and count without an honor - but the leader should have the 10 as well, AKJ10x. It is this type holding that led, IMO, to the adoption of some to lead A when holding AKJxx and King when holding AKJ10 or KQ109. Winston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finch Posted June 25, 2006 Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 It is normal to have an agreement that either the ace or the king asks for unblock, the other asks for attitude. My belief is that in North America, the lead of the Ace asks for an unblock; in England (and, less confidently, the rest of Europe) the lead of the King asks for an unblock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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