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First lead


jahol

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IMPs, both vulnerable, aggresive opponents, you have

Qx---KQx---xxx---Jxxxx

 

and the bidding (Standard American, 2/1 is 10+) was

 

LHO----P----RHO----YOU

..................1S........P

2H.......P......3D.......P

4S.......P......4NT......P

5H.......P......6S........P

P.........P

 

5H = 2 key values from five for spades, without trumph queen. What is your first lead?

 

(There is NO NEED to think that this is a kind of special problem. I am just interested in your (statistically best) lead at the table).

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K is necessary only if RHO has xx, dummy has some potential club winners to throw hearts on, and partner has a club trick. To me it seems more likely that HK will make declarer's life easy for him, perhaps saving him a guess, either about which suit to play on or about how to play the heart suit. I lead a club.
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K is necessary only if RHO has xx, dummy has some potential club winners to throw hearts on, and partner has a club trick. To me it seems more likely that HK will make declarer's life easy for him, perhaps saving him a guess, either about which suit to play on or about how to play the heart suit. I lead a club.

Or we are going to score a trump trick?

 

Or (gasp!) partner has the ace of hearts?

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Ask rho what the 5 response means (preferably by asking... does it say anything about the trump Queen?), then lead the heart King. That way, you can be sure of two things:

 

1. You will score your spade Q unless the opps have a 10 card fit (or better)

 

2. You will be banned shortly thereafter :rolleyes:

 

Seriously, my sense is that the heart K is far more likely to work than any other lead. We need less for the heart K to work than for any other lead.

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Would the HK suggest a bit more that we have the SQ?

Andy why should the king suggest the queen? Mate think thats overdoing the thinking a bit.

If you are wanting to know how to finesse correctly in the trump suit for the Queen drawing inference from k isnt going to help. I might lead K even without the queen on a different day. Are you happy to play me for the queen of now?:unsure:

 

My lead is not k.

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I don't understand.  Why does the fact that we may have a trump trick argue for a heart lead?

Because 1+1=2

Thanks for that contribution to the discussion. You obviously put a great deal of thought into it.

 

If leading a heart will get us a heart trick and a trump trick, under what circumstances will not leading a heart mean that we don't get a heart trick and a trump trick?

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