obv i cheat

[Guest Jlall]

KJ9x JT98 Axx xx

 

IMPS

 

2D on your left. Tank 3N on your right. Opps are experts.

 

Your lead?

[scoob]

J♥

[inquiry]

♠, PROBABLY THE JACK. No time to try to establish slow hearts....

[Apollo81]

either a low spade or the jack (probably is right given the post's title)

 

I think I'd lead low at the table

[paulg]

♠x - needs less to be right but I hope I haven't blocked the suit.

[uday]

I'll assume it is a weak 2. Choices seem to be:

 

 

H J : Totally normal

 

Sx : Slightly more aggressive, but it *is* 4th from your longest/strongest

 

SK: Caters to stiff SQ in dummy, perhaps to xxxxx in partners hand. Loses to Axx in Ps hand.

 

 

I reject the club suit and the SJ9 as being too odd and bearing insufficient upside.

 

Does the tank change anything? RHO couldn't possibly have been wondering about whether to show a major, and it is perhaps off-color to tank & then psyche. So I'll assume he has a good hand, but the tank doesnt change much vis a vis the lead.

 

I think there is not enough info here to make the hero/fool SK lead, so either the HJ or Sx works for me. I lean towards the HJ since that allows us to try for slow tricks now with some fast tricks in reserve when we win the DA. If RHO runs clubs & hearts while we had 5+ tricks in spades & diamonds I'll apologize at the bar

 

Another reason to lead the HJ is that the other table might have the same problem and will probably lead the HJ.

[jdeegan]

:rolleyes: 2♠. More ways to beat the hand. Partner's expectancy is to hold two cards. Heat lead requires ♥KQ. Club lead requires ♣ AQJ + length. ♠ 2 lead requires ♠A OR ♠Q and ♣A.

Declarer's tank could mean anything, but given his apparent lack of a ♦ filler, it is consistent with a shaky ♠ stop like Qxx. Please don't tell me that the ♠Q shows up in the dummy.

[P_Marlowe]

Jack of hearts, or whatever you have

agreed on.

 

The most likely reason for the tank is,

that your RHO has shortage in diamonds

but lots of points.

 

May main goal would be to find a lead,

which presents no gift to declarer.

 

With kind regards

Marlowe

[mike777]

♠

[pclayton]

A spade is better than a heart I think. I'll try the genius J too.

[han]

obv!

 

 

Agree that a spade is best, not sure about which one.

[Halo]

Opponent 'knows' you will lead a major. If it is critical that he has two stops in MA and one in MB, you have no idea what's what.

 

On the other hand, who knows what the 3NT bid is.

 

J♥

 

Hesitation... mmm... I'd take some persuading if your choice of lead just didn't work out.

[Guest Jlall]

What do you think RHO's hand looks like? Why are you leading the spade jack with a weak 2 bid on your left, is there some layout that you are playing for that you think is percentage?

[ochinko]

If I am going to lead a spade instead of a heart for reasons of not enough tempo, the King should be better than the Jack.

 

Justin, did you catch a lonely ♠Q, you cheater? :rolleyes:

[sceptic]

I lead a low diamond

 

if my pard had no dia or short maybe he would take some action, so it is quite feasible we cab cut the suit off and keep throwing declarer on lead

[han]

Any lead would cater against Qx in dummy and 10xx in dummy.

 

The king would additionally work when declarer has 10xxx and dummy Qx or the stiff queen.

 

Only the jack would work when dummy has Qxx and declarer 10xx, and it also works on some holdings where a small lead would have worked as well (like partner with A10x and declarer with Qxx).

 

Of course small is the only winning lead when declarer has queen-third and partner has the ace but not the ten.

 

If we assume that declarer's tank suggests an open suit (and we'd better hope that the suit is spades because that is definitely the suit that we are leading) then I think that the lead of the king is slightly better than low or the jack.

[mikeh]

We need more from partner in ♥s than we do in ♠s, so I am going for the ♠ lead. A low spade risks blocking the suit when partner hods Qxxxx and declarer A10x, for example. The 9 is too confusing, not to mention that it gains nothing other than to unblock. The J seems the worst of all leads...so I am down to the King.

 

I am helped, in coming to this conclusion, by the title of the thread... and I don't know if I would have done this at the table, but I like the thinking behind it (even if it turns out to be flawed). I dislike 'odd' leads, but this one has compelling logic... at least, I have convinced myself that it does :rolleyes:

[pclayton]

We need more from partner in ♥s than we do in ♠s, so I am going for the ♠ lead. A low spade risks blocking the suit when partner hods Qxxxx and declarer A10x, for example. The 9 is too confusing, not to mention that it gains nothing other than to unblock. The J seems the worst of all leads...so I am down to the King.

 

I am helped, in coming to this conclusion, by the title of the thread... and I don't know if I would have done this at the table, but I like the thinking behind it (even if it turns out to be flawed). I dislike 'odd' leads, but this one has compelling logic... at least, I have convinced myself that it does :rolleyes:

We are getting in - probably at T2.

 

If pard looked like he was winning an early trick, I'd be more worried about leading a weird card.

[Guest Jlall]

The spade king? Can't declarer just have like...the queen? He did bid 3N..

 

Ok anyways I led a spade (low seemed really normal?) and declarer had Qxx AQx --- AKQJxxx so he went down 3 (partner having the KJ of diamonds).

 

obv my RHO upon seeing my hand accused me of cheating lol........

 

This is AFTER a hand where I had JTx AQx AQJT9x x and it went 1D on my left, 1S on my right, 2D by me, pass, 3H from pard. RHO asked "what is 2D" and partner said "H+C"

 

Instead of trying to weasel out of this like 99 % of people would do either passing or reasoning that 3H by a partner who didnt bid 1H is impossible thus we had a misunderstanding or 3H by partner must be a splinter either way bidding 4D, I bid 4H and went -4. Whether or not this was the right thing to do is irrelevant, it clearly shows my attitude on trying to be ethical and trying not to cheat so obv my spade lead indicates that I cheat lol.

[kenrexford]

You could have reported this, of course. That's absurd as an accusation.

 

BTW -- should you have gone down -4 in 4♥? Did you find that magic line to avoid -5?

[Guest Jlall]

You could have reported this, of course. That's absurd as an accusation.

 

BTW -- should you have gone down -4 in 4♥? Did you find that magic line to avoid -5?

Yeah I could have but it's like admitting they got to you. Instead I needled him a little (I don't make a habit of doing this but he had it coming), and my favorite part was when he said he wondered why I led a spade and not a heart I said "because I'm good" lol.

 

I'm sure he realized what an idiot he was later when his TEAMMATES also said they would lead a spade.

 

And yeah my partner played 4H very well to go down just 4 actually lol.

[inquiry]

What kind of expert opponents were these? Seems not expert or even advanced to me. Spade lead is perfectly normal here.

[han]

Good lead Justin :unsure:.

[nige1]

♠ K J 9 x ♥ J T 9 8 ♦ A x x ♣ x x

IMPS 2 ♦  on your left. Tank 3N on your right. Opps are experts. Your lead?

IMO ♠ 9 = 10, ♠ x = 9, ♠ J = 8, ♥ J = 7, ♣ x = 3, ♦ x = 2, ♦ A = 1.

 

IMO its a guess...

 

If you are scared of dummy's ♦ and hope to set up tricks quickly then spades require least from partner. The ♠ K or ♠ J work best when

[A] Partner has ♠ Qxxxxx without pips

Dummy has ♠ Qxx (unlikely).

[C] There is danger of a major suit squeeze.

 

The ♠ 9 works best when dummy is short and declarer has ♠ Q T x

 

An orthodox ♥ J imay not win the Brilliancy Prize :) but will often give nothing away :) and defeat the contract if declarer is struggling for tricks :)