Leading vs suits at MP

[mike777]

Can anyone generalize what their thought process is when leading against suit contracts, game or partscores at MP.

 

I have seen numerous comments that seem to imply safe or neutral leads as opposed to attacking leads away from Kings?

[pclayton]

Its all situational. One of the main things players do is make robot leads of singletons and sequences. Look at your hand, analyze the bidding and determine if you need to be passive or agressive.

[awm]

Leads at matchpoints should (in general) be substantially more passive than leads at IMPs. Let me try to explain:

 

At IMP scoring, your goal is to set the contract. This often requires partner to have the "right cards." So you basically assume partner has the right cards. On opening lead, this often means assuming partner has an honor in your strong suit and leading away from your holding. Sure, more often than not partner has the wrong cards and you may even hand declarer an extra trick with the lead. But usually when partner had the wrong cards you weren't setting anyway, and the extra trick is just an overtrick.

 

At MP scoring, your goal is to hold declarer to the minimum number of tricks. Most of the time partner does not have the "right cards." So you want to make leads that won't backfire opposite partner's frequent "wrong hand." Leading away from honors will frequently give declarer a trick when partner doesn't have help for you.

 

So at MPs it often pays to lead passive. This is not to say you should always lead from small cards and never lead away from an honor, but "when in doubt go passive" is a good rule at MP scoring. As usual you have to listen to the auction and make a determination on that basis.

[mike777]

In just a few replies you guys raise many issues. Just wish others would ask for more clarification....since I need it...... ;)

[Rebound]

My 2 cents:

 

Sometimes, my leads go very right and sometimes they go very wrong. The important thing is that I always have a reason.

 

I also believe that if one were to analyze the success of one's leads over an extended period, one would find a significant number of hands where the lead was unlikely to affect the outcome.

 

If you make the effort to revisit your choices later, you can see for yourself if yours was a good reason or if you need to rethink it next time. To me, that is as good a way as any to learn to make better leads.

[whereagles]

Can anyone generalize what their thought process is when leading against suit contracts, game or partscores at MP.

 

I have seen numerous comments that seem to imply safe or neutral leads as opposed to attacking leads away from Kings?

There is no general rule. Every hand has its own particularities.

[sathyab]

A corrollary to making passive leads at MP is in bidding. How you get to a contract quite often is just as important as the eventual contract, i.e, the more uninformative the bidding the better. Naturally of course there's a trade-off between accuracy in your own constructive bidding and being helpful to your opponents in the process. Case in point:

 

You're the dealer holding 9 JT872 KT84 876 with both Vul in the second qualifying session at BRP in Hawaii and the bidding goes p-(1c)-p-(1s)-p-(3s)-p-(4c)-p-(4h)-p-4s. You were all set to lead the Jack of hearts, but put it back and lead a Diamond. Declarer was a looking for a Diamond cue-bid on the way to slam, but when partner denied it, he subsided in game. Good bidding opponents; thank you !

 

The full hand being:[hv=d=s&v=b&n=s76hq954daj965cj5&w=sa843hak3dq2ckq94&e=skqjt52h6d73cat32&s=s9hjt872dkt84c876]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

I have sympathy for the bidding, his partner could easily have the Ace of Diamonds and one more club and a slightly weaker hand and the slam is icy. Noone ever said MP was not cruel :D