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Another lead question


  

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  1. 1. What suit do you lead?

    • Club
      19
    • Diamond
      12
    • Heart
      1
    • Spade
      1


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I have not seen bidding like this. The opponents are almost surely weak players or have some kind of wire on the hand. In theory the double says lead diamonds, dummy’s first bid suit. It should probably show either the diamond Ace and a sure trump trick or a void and reason to believe that he has another trick somewhere.

 

Why he thinks the diamond Ace is cashing, or that declarer has a pitch for it (so we need to lead it immediately) is a mystery.

 

Of course, maybe he holds QJ109 in trump and the opponents are as bad as I think them to be.

 

I would want to know the meaning of 2D but I assume it’s some sort of strong jump. I don’t think I’ve played against anyone who uses this jumpshift, as strong, in more than 30 years.

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I have not seen bidding like this. The opponents are almost surely weak players or have some kind of wire on the hand. In theory the double says lead diamonds, dummy’s first bid suit. It should probably show either the diamond Ace and a sure trump trick or a void and reason to believe that he has another trick somewhere.

 

Why he thinks the diamond Ace is cashing, or that declarer has a pitch for it (so we need to lead it immediately) is a mystery.

 

Of course, maybe he holds QJ109 in trump and the opponents are as bad as I think them to be.

 

I would want to know the meaning of 2D but I assume it’s some sort of strong jump. I don’t think I’ve played against anyone who uses this jumpshift, as strong, in more than 30 years.

 

You haven't played over here then recently, jump shift is often strong here, but often strong and fit showing.

 

This looks like a lightner double, would not surprise me at all if partner has a club void (and also not surprise me if the ruff merely prevents the overtrick) but our best hope would seem to be that partner still has a trump trick after the ruff.

 

Maybe opps are 1462/2416 or similar and partner has 6 small spades, QJxx of hearts and a club void.

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I'm leading 7.

 

I'm asking myself "What kind of hand can opener have that bids slam after responder shows a suit and raises ". If opener had a short hand, I don't think there's a hand that would fit that bidding scenario. So, I'm giving opener length.

 

Secondly, I'm expecting a "good partner" to know what a Lightner double is. So I'm leading a expecting partner to ruff.

 

I'm not leading a low which partner might interpret as a suit preference for . A return might give away the whole suit. I'm also keeping Q10 which might yield a second trick if partner is void.

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I can't belive the most choose lead. That's suit of player behind leader.

Double specifically asks you to make an unusual lead. If I wanted a spade lead I definitely wouldn't double.

 

It normally asks me to lead dummy's suit, but I'm going with a club also. But agree with Mike the opponents probably don't know what they're doing.

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Playing in BBO with a good partner, but no previous discussion about the implications of this double. What suit do you lead?

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt93h4dqt9cqt763&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=p1cp2dp2hp4hp6hppdppp]133|200[/hv]

 

I actually suspect your partner's double here is based on something like QJT8 of trump. But if not, then he either has the AKd or a void somewhere. I'd say the latter is far more likely given your hand, so I will try a club.

 

Cheers,

Mike

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I agree with Mike, the opps are presumably very weak. Yes, the jump is presumably strong (very strong since it's a minor), but it is usually either a very good quality single suiter, or showing a good suit and support for partner's suit. An agreement to make a strong jump with a 2-suited hand is curious, to say the least. The 4H bid is inconsistent wigh either of these options.

 

Subsequent bidding is also inconsistent with the bid being strong. A strong jump 2D is forcing to game, so why has West jumped to 4H, rather than conserving space and bidding 3H? And why has east jumped to slam with no check on controls, but not looked for a geand slam?

 

The only slightly sensible construction that I could think of is that 1C is precision, 2D is natural and positive, 2H is East's suit (possibly with diamond support) and east has all of the controls and enough to bid slam opposite a positive with heart support and a diamond suit. In this scenario, I lead a diamond.

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I guessed that partner's double could be the DA and a slow trump trick (like the QJT). If so, then it is essential to lead a D at trick one before declarer's Ds can be pitched on the high Ss in dummy. The hand I guessed would be something like this:

Note: Example hands edited. Thanks smerriman!

 

West....East

AKx.....void

Kxxx....Axxxx

Kxxxxx..Jx

void....AKJxxx

 

Another possibility could be partner having a D void and a trump trick. Those hands would look similar to this:

 

AKJ.....void

Qxxx....KJTx

AKJxxx..xxxx

void....AKJxx

 

If partner does not have a C void, leading a C could be costly for us. So I led a D. I posted this to see what other people would lead.

 

Unfortunately, the actual hands were as shown below. The majority who led a C got this one right.

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt93h4dqt9cqt763&w=sk6hqj93dakj63c94&n=sj8754hat8d87542c&e=sa2hk7652dcakj852&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=p1cp2dp2hp4hp6hppdppp]399|300[/hv]

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In your first guessed hand, the contract goes down half a trick - you tie the third spade and claim stalemate. (If, say, you swap West's Q with the J, and replace a small diamond in East with a small spade, it's down on any lead - throwing all of the diamonds still leaves you with all of the club losers).

 

Of course, E/W's bidding is nonsense in all three scenarios..

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Cyberyeti -- You sure can. You could very adequately bid the West hand by bidding 1 and reversing into 2 if available on the 2nd round.

 

BTW, one consideration in choosing a versus a lead is that a lead may give away the whole suit. If partner has the A, it's unlikely to go away.

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Yup, this is to me a much more difficult problem if W just bid 6 rather than 4 and E bidding 6. Now he could be something stupid like 0490 and the diamond lead could be right.

I did not look too much at the auction ... and also not at the arguments for a diamond,

which are likely sensible.

In the end get it right, club is dangerous, so is any other suit.

If the X asks for dummys first suit, go with it.

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I chose the club lead without looking at the replies, so I will give some of my thoughts.

 

I took the 2D bid as strong. Of course at the table I might ask, but w/o an alert I assume it is strong.

 

Now what about doubles of slams reached by an uncontested auction? If the slam is 6NT I think the X asks for the first suit bid by dummy. Don't think, just lead it. Against suit slams I think it is a different story. I think I can find literature that agrees with me but I am still on my first cup of coffee. I think X asks for an unusual lead, not a trump or a spade, but other than that I am to look at my hand and try to judge what partner has in mind.With my 3 card D holding I find it hard to believe pard has a void there, but Rho started with 1C and then bid 2H. That doesn't prove too much but at least it is consistent with a C void in partner's hand. So a C it is.

 

As to the bidding: I play strong jump shifts with one partner but even with him this wouldn't be enough for me. My plan would be to start with 1D and then reverse into 2H. Of course then, when pard bids 1H over my 1D, I will have to think again. I don't see this as demonstrating any weakness on the part of the opponents. They bid differently than I do but that's a different story.

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My thinking is that it must not matter what I lead - or I must lead a club. As long as 2D is a strong jump shift, this auction is screaming a 4-6 or even 5-6(7) pattern from declarer. Partner is warning me off normal spade lead - and opp would not have jumped into a suited headed by the J. Partner either holds KQJ of trumps or Axx(x) with a club void.
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Playing in BBO with a good partner, but no previous discussion about the implications of this double. What suit do you lead?

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt93h4dqt9cqt763&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=p1cp2dp2hp4hp6hppdppp]133|200[/hv]

 

Leading away from any of my honours would be risky. I'd lead my singleton trump. It doesn't give anything away.

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