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Your lead


raduv

What's your lead?  

39 members have voted

  1. 1. What's your lead?

    • [SP] 4
      2
    • [HE] 2
      18
    • [DI] A
      1
    • [DI] 4
      2
    • [CL] 3
      16
    • Other
      0


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Trump for several reasons:

 

1. It's matchpoints and we don't have to beat this hand to get a good score. We just have to avoid blowing a trick along the way.

 

2. They walked this up to 4, so they don't have extra values.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if a club worked on the hand. We have two possible entries so if pard has Q-8-x and dummy the H-T-x, we can establish a tempo at T1. I'd be less surprised if the club blew a trick, or didn't matter.

 

Can a trump cost a trick? Not likely, but its possible. If declarer had Axxx and dummy QT9x, we've eliminated the guess.

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Club for me. There are actually many positions where leading a trump from this holding is bad. Reverse Phil's example, give declarer QT9x and dummy Axxx. Now declarer can play the suit for no losers easily if partner makes the normal play of putting up the jack, and he may still go right if partner cleverly plays low to the first trick. This would be impossible without the trump lead. There are other examples where partner has Qx and the trump lead removes a guess.

 

The club length for the opponents is probably in RHO's hand, so the club nine will normally protect me from giving a trick away.

 

Low diamond lead could work obviously (most of the diamond cards are probably on my left) but it could also give a tempo and seems like a high risk lead (basically hoping partner has the Q behind the king).

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Wow I would never lead a trump. If the opps bid exactly 2 suits on the way to game, I will almost never lead anything other than one of the other 2 suits (OK maybe an AK if I think partner might be able to ruff or a singleton if partner likely has some values....). The fact that diamonds are probably coming in (Axx onside) makes a passive lead all the worse. Out of all the times where the attacking lead blows the suit, a lot of the time the trick was going away on the long diamond anyway....

 

I think a club lead here is clear.

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B) small. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." A is a risky second given an auction and form of scoring that screams for safety.

 

IMHO a trump lead sucks. If they are 4-4, it does no good and might compress a trick. If they are 3-5, then LHO has long for pitches. Even in a best case, you are giving up a tempo. Old bridge adage: never lead a trump unless you have a good reason

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Club for me. There are actually many positions where leading a trump from this holding is bad. Reverse Phil's example, give declarer QT9x and dummy Axxx. Now declarer can play the suit for no losers easily if partner makes the normal play of putting up the jack, and he may still go right if partner cleverly plays low to the first trick. This would be impossible without the trump lead. There are other examples where partner has Qx and the trump lead removes a guess.

 

The club length for the opponents is probably in RHO's hand, so the club nine will normally protect me from giving a trick away.

 

Low diamond lead could work obviously (most of the diamond cards are probably on my left) but it could also give a tempo and seems like a high risk lead (basically hoping partner has the Q behind the king).

But there are may more combinations where the lead away from a J-9 loses a trick.

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.

 

I have some respect for the dummy's minor suit -- perhaps in a 5-card major world a 1 opening doesn't mean anything and I am wrong. However, if the dummy has KQxxx then a passive lead will be wrong.

 

If the dummy does have a real diamond suit and the spade lead blows our potential 3rd round winner, it's a winner we'd never come to anyway.

 

Yes, clubs are safer in a sense because of the 9, but also they are less likely to be productive because of the extra length. Spades are more likely to be 4333 around the table.

 

Finally, there's something unrealistic about trying a passive defense in an individual event.

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