Lead Problem

[spil]

The Auction is 2NT on your left, Pass from partner, 6 Diamonds on your right.

What do you lead holding

Txx Tx Txx T9xxx

[billw55]

♣J seems obvious.

 

edit: hmm, when I first read this thread, the club suit was JT9xx. Now it has been changed.

[gszes]

P rates to have more hearts than any other suit so they rate to have "something" useful in hearts since they own all of our defensive assets. It is not so much that I expect a heart lead to be an immediate dagger but hopefully our one entry leads through some of the powerhouse on our left and possibly partner gets a slow trick later. I see little "future" in a club lead.

[rmnka447]

I'm a ♥ leader also.

 

Responder must have long diamonds and a distributional hand else an exploration for NT might have occurred. Likewise, possibly with ♦ and a major, a search for a major might have been pursued. Responder ought to able to see that it's likely no more than one trick would be lost. If responder had something like ♠ Kxx ♥ Kxx ♦ KQ109xxx ♣ - , an ace ask doesn't help much, but 6 seems like a pretty good bet.

 

It's not much but all the evidence you have.

 

A trump lead might be attractive if you thought an opener ruff might be necessary to make 6. But with long ♦ in responder's hand, it's more likely opener has a doubleton ♦ rather than a doubleton in a side suit. From your hand, if responder is short in a suit it's more likely to be ♣ than anything else.

 

Like gszes says, partner is likely to have more ♥s and therefore some values in that suit than any other.