A curious bidding sequence

[zasanya]

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=sa10xxxxha10xxd10xcx]133|100|Scoring: IMP

1♥-p-p-1♠

p-2♥-5♣-5♠

p-p-6♣-p

p-dbl-p-p

p[/hv]

E/W playing precision so West hand limited to 15.What would you lead?

[Free]

♦T

[kenrexford]

Ace of hearts. Who knows?!?

[jdonn]

Ace of hearts. Who knows?!?

I agree. Btw I have a concrete rule that I hopefully will never break. If I hold two aces against a slam, I will lead one of them. Every time I have seen this rule broken at the table the leader has come to regret it.

[cherdanno]

♠A. I hate the ♥A lead fwiw. If declarer has a heart void, I assume you agree. Now pretend he has a singleton and leads it up to dummy at trick 2. Wouldn't we all duck?

[mtvesuvius]

I have a gut feeling that declarer is 7-5 at least... perhaps even something like (01)=3=9. So I need to find the right ace. I would imagine that 6♣ was bid on a ♠ void, so I'll try the A♥.

[kenrexford]

Ace of hearts.  Who knows?!?

I agree. Btw I have a concrete rule that I hopefully will never break. If I hold two aces against a slam, I will lead one of them. Every time I have seen this rule broken at the table the leader has come to regret it.

Against a pair of insane friends, who were actually trying, I found myself on lead against 6NT with AK-A, and opted to lead my QJ10x suit. LOL

[whereagles]

Lead the trump. I've seen stuff like this before.

[the hog]

Ace of hearts.  Who knows?!?

I agree. Btw I have a concrete rule that I hopefully will never break. If I hold two aces against a slam, I will lead one of them. Every time I have seen this rule broken at the table the leader has come to regret it.

rofl.

This comment reminds me of a famous hand, well famous in Australia anyway. Bridge author Tim Bourke was playing with the resident maniac, his regular partner at the time. Resident maniac is the model for David Bird's Brother Herman in the "monk books". Anyway, maniac hold 2 Aces against 6NT and doubles. He leads one and then decides he can get this off more than one, so switches to an off suit. Bourke now has to defend card perfectly to defeat the contract as the other Ace disappears into the ether. One off and many frayed nerves. At the end of the hand Bourke picks up his cards and throws them at the resident maniac together with some rather pithy comments.

[blackshoe]

We have a rather formidable woman player locally. She told me a story once about an opponent who, holding an ace against her 7NT contract, didn't lead it. When she asked the opponent why, after the hand, she got back "You always make your contracts!" :)

[whereagles]

I read that story, Ron. Brother Herman is a great player :)

[jdonn]

♠A. I hate the ♥A lead fwiw. If declarer has a heart void, I assume you agree. Now pretend he has a singleton and leads it up to dummy at trick 2. Wouldn't we all duck?

I don't understand. I hate the ace of spades lead, and if declarer has a spade void I assume you agree.

 

Now, which is more likely on this auction?

 

As for ducking a singleton, do I know it's a singleton? Can I see the rest of the hand? How do I know if I would duck?

[zasanya]

Ace of hearts.  Who knows?!?

I agree. Btw I have a concrete rule that I hopefully will never break. If I hold two aces against a slam, I will lead one of them. Every time I have seen this rule broken at the table the leader has come to regret it.

[hv=d=w&v=n&n=skqxxhkxxdxxxxxck&w=sjhqjxxxdaqjxcqxx&e=sxxhxdkxcaj10xxxxx&s=sa10xxxxha10xxd10xcx]399|300|Scoring: IMP

1♥-p-p-1♠

p-2♥-5♣-5♠

p-p-6♣-p

p-dbl-p-p

p[/hv]

I wish I had known about Jdonn's rule before this hand came up.

I led ♦ 10.Declarer an old man claimed after the second trick when ♣ king came down.

Then he told us he had been feeling dizzy, not having taken his blood pressure pills,had not heard his partners call (no bidding boxes),and not called 5♣ on his first turn as he had not sorted his cards properly(!).Then he went to the washroom came back refreshed.

I was dizzy for the rest of the round.

[cherdanno]

♠A. I hate the ♥A lead fwiw. If declarer has a heart void, I assume you agree.

I don't understand. I hate the ace of spades lead, and if declarer has a spade void I assume you agree.

 

Now, which is more likely on this auction?

If I lead ♠A into declarer's void, I am unlikely to set up a trick, and the next thing I expect to see is declarer leading up a heart to dummy (after drawing trump). Which would mean I get even with the ♥A leaders, assuming I just take my ace without looking at dummy.

If I lead ♥A into declarer's void, the next thing I expect to see is declarer claiming.

I agree the spade void is more likely, but the lead into a spade void is far less disastrous.

[jdonn]

I agree with you that the ace of hearts lead into a void would be disasterous, and the ace of spades lead into a void would probably not be harmful, but in both cases only in the context of the suit, not the entire hand. I think having a spade lead ruffed would very often be quite disasterous, since it would lead to him claiming in clubs and diamonds when we could have either cashed two hearts or gotten a heart ruff. There is no doubt that the most likely suit RHO is taking a chance on is hearts, the one his partner opened.

 

In other words, when a heart is wrong I think it's very likely we could never set him. When a spade is wrong, I think there is a very fair chance a heart could have set him.

[cherdanno]

I agree with you that the ace of hearts lead into a void would be disasterous, and the ace of spades lead into a void would probably not be harmful, but in both cases only in the context of the suit, not the entire hand. I think having a spade lead ruffed would very often be quite disasterous, since it would lead to him claiming in clubs and diamonds when we could have either cashed two hearts or gotten a heart ruff. There is no doubt that the most likely suit RHO is taking a chance on is hearts, the one his partner opened.

 

In other words, when a heart is wrong I think it's very likely we could never set him. When a spade is wrong, I think there is a very fair chance a heart could have set him.

(italics mine)

I guess that iss one point that I disagree with - RHO is also more likely to pass first round with a void in partner's suit.

I think the other reason why we differ is that I am just not as pessimistic as you. As long as we don't do anything disastrous on the opening lead, I expect to beat this.