defending behind in the match 1 of 2

[mcphee]

[hv=n=shj1065dakj864cak9&w=sa10876h98d1072cq64&e=sj42haq74dq93cj103&s=skq953hk32d5c8752]399|300|[/hv]

 

 

3 hands remain and you are 15 behind and along comes this one. After the jump to 3!D the S hand paused for some time before re-bidding S and you find yourself on lead. The good news is declarer will not be able to establish D without allowing you to get in. The bad news is evident, you have no promissing 5 card suit and C are so weak they offer little hope, at least that is my view.

 

Here was the bidding, with you in first seat contributing the first pass.

P P P 1D

P 1S P 3D

P 3S*P 3N * represents a pause for the cause.

 

Now you are faced with finding your lead. Without giving away the ship it strikes me you can safely rule out leading a D. Lets face it, partner is not going to be looking at a very good hand.

 

Consider that a H lead could possibly give up timing. I feel that you are unlikely to find partner with more than the hope of 1 entry really. But at least they can attack H from that side of the table and you will not give up a tempo. So after some thought you elect to lead the J of S, fully prepared to say "sorry partner I was a mental midget".

 

Look what happened. Declarer of course covered with the K partner wins the A while declarer shows out dumping a C. Now from partners view it is highly likely you have a 5 card H suit that looked dangerous to lead from, so they make the best return of the 9H. Declarer plays the 10, you win A and continue S. How can this be wrong really. The delcarer has no chance any more, if he wins you will later collect 2 more S tricks. He tries the 9 losing to the 10 and the 8H comes back. We see the J and cover, he wins K, cashs a S dumping a H and tries the D hook. Wow, 2 down out of no where and a H lead gives away the contract easily.

 

 

The rest of the story comes in part 2. However, lets see how we view this opening lead. Would or should we have led H as a better hope? Was the J of S sensible in anyones view?

[luke warm]

i'd probably have led the ♣J, but the ♠J is certainly a possibility... no, i wouldn't have led the heart either... the only way i'd do that is if south bid the first nt and they ended up in north's suit.. then i'd think about leading the queen

[JSilver]

I can't argue with sucess, but I doubt I'd've been so creative. A ♥ lead will succeed if partner has ♥Jxx and one trick in the black suits. In this scenario, a ♠ lead might give away the show, if decarer has, say ♥KTx and partner's entry was in clubs.

 

But the ♠J is a credible try, obviously. Behind in the match, some creatvity may be justified, if you think the contract is likely to be the same in the other room.

[Fluffy]

I've seen leading dummy's sit with the top form a honnor third (Jxx or Qxx normally) come to success before (works specially good catching declarer 9x or 10x), but all in all it works little, its not a winning strategy on the long run.