Which suit to lead?

[shyams]

IMPs, final board of a 8 board match. All bids have natural meaning (if it matters, opps play 2/1)

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt7ha876d32cj852&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1sp1np3hp3nppp]133|200[/hv]

 

What would your choice of opening lead be?

[nullve]

♠Q (not just a spade)

[apollo1201]

Tough. S are going to run for declarer, so we need to develop tricks quickly.

 

With the HA in my hand, there doesn’t seem to be a great future there (JX98 would be better as we could hope to trap declarer’s honors or not give anything). It will be the card that will allow me to be on lead another time.

 

D is a complete guess. It could work well if partner has a good sequence there, but statistically, it will often be declarer’s longer suit.

 

So C remains, although Jxxx are often bad suits to lead from and it can help declarer. So I’ll put the C2 on the table. But not thrilled. And revealing how the suit splits to everyone around the table. H might be better after all.

[nige1]

[hv=pc=n&s=sqt7ha876d32cj852&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1sp1np3hp3nppp]133|200| Shyams 'IMPs, final board of a 8 board match. All bids have natural meaning (if it matters, opps play 2/1). What would your choice of opening lead be?

++++++++++++++++++++

Hard decision. I rank ...

1. ♣2. Dummy is known to have length and strength in both majors. Declarer might have a weak minor. If declarer's weaker minor is diamonds, partner might have had enough length to over-call that suit.

2. ♥6. Dummy might be 6-4 in the majors. The ♥ lead might remove a dummy entry.

3. ♥A Better in the unlikely case that declarer has a singleton honour.

4. ♦3. Passive and might be right.

5. ♠Q Brilliancy prize attempt. :)

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[FelicityR]

With not much to go on I work on the principle of leading the longest unbid suit against no-trumps here. So it's a ♣.

 

Whether it is the best lead is another matter...

[Tramticket]

Chances of beating this are very low. Leading the ♣2 is horrible, but the other choices are likely to be worse.

[pescetom]

The clubs really are horrible though, I go with 6 hearts as a slightly better chance.

[mikeh]

A club seems clear. Even if partner has internally solid diamonds, he won’t have entries to run them once we drive out declarer’s stopper (s). Since our spades are so horribly positioned, we need to find partner with cards that will help establish our suit (using the term loosely). So a club it is.

 

Btw, at the table I’d know quite a bit about my opps’s style: 7 boards is enough to tell how solid they are as players, and that would factor into my at the table views. For now, in a vacuum, I lead the club.