[Fluffy]

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[mikeh]

My initial reaction was that the diamond was obvious.

My more considered opinion was that there are two alternatives: a heart or the club A

The case for the heart is very narrowly focused: it is that partner can ruff and we have the club A to get back on lead to get the second ruff...thus we'd lead our lowest heart.

This is an incredibly narrow target, rendered very slightly narrower by partner's failure to double.

The stronger case for the club lead is that we may be able to flat out beat it with either high clubs and a slow red trick or two top clubs and a ruff, and a slow red trick, plus the remote possibilty that LHO and partner are 4=4 in clubs, with LHO holding AK spades....say Q10xx KJxx xxx Ax, and we take 3 clubs by strength and then score our trump Q on the 4th round (there are other variants where we can promote a trump trick by playing on clubs)

The way I look at this is that in real life I'd lead a diamond and consider that so automatic that I now lead the club A, since surely this is only posted because the obvious lead didn't work

[MrAce]

I agree with Mike that obvious lead did not work or the hand would not make it to forums.

But i still lead ♦.

I strongly believe that if you don't lead your stiff it will be hard to convince your pd that you have a stiff, let alone singleton in his suit. After all if you make your minors xx♦ A♣, you would be leading ♣A and shift ♦ no ?

[jogs]

mikeh, on 2013-April-10, 13:55, said:

My initial reaction was that the diamond was obvious.


The way I look at this is that in real life I'd lead a diamond and consider that so automatic that I ....

That's why I lead the ♠2. It was the only (suit) lead you didn't consider.

[mikeh]

MrAce, on 2013-April-10, 14:51, said:

I strongly believe that if you don't lead your stiff it will be hard to convince your pd that you have a stiff, let alone singleton in his suit. After all if you make your minors xx♦ A♣, you would be leading ♣A and shift ♦ no ?

Experienced players have several ways of distinguishing between xx and A, otoh, and x Ax oto.

A old but still effective one is that one leads a stiff with the left hand. Thus with xx A, lead the club with the left hand.

Cautious players lead the next card with the right hand, since leading both club and diamond, at tricks 1 and 2, may suggest a 1=1 holding, consistent with the 4♥ call. Others will argue that this makes little sense, since one can't ruff both suits at trick 3, so partner will always return the lead of the first suit.

With x Ax, lead the club A with the right hand and then switch to the diamond with the left. It helps to have clubs and diamonds held at opposite ends of the hand, but this should be second nature for those accustomed to this method, or the method set out below.

Another method, which is unfortunately easier for the opps to detect, and hence can cause unpleasantness with directors and committees, is that with xx A, lead the A from one end of your hand, then pull out first one and then the other diamond, from the other end of the hand....toy with them a few times.....you only need so this once with an alert partner.....and then lead a diamond.

With x Ax one leads the A and instantly shift to the diamond. If the opps appear to be watching, have the diamond next to the club in your hand so that you can argue that you were confused....you thought you were leading the second club.

One word of caution: I have advised that you hold the important suits at opposite ends of your holdings. Some rookies make the mistake of leading, say, the club and then visibly rearranging the cards to make it clear that you now have to reorder the suits, presumbably because you now hold only 3 suits. This can succeed in games against weak opponents, but is otherwise too much of a red flag.

[MrAce]

[Fluffy]

so far most elbaborated posts have mentioned the killing lead but I think for the wrong reason

[Fluffy]

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The hand would be perhaps better if ♦10 was a low pip and partner could find the killing defence.

[MrAce]

Fluffy, on 2013-April-11, 17:29, said:

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The hand would be perhaps better if ♦10 was a low pip and partner could find the killing defence.

Diaomond spot doesn't matter imo, since you posted this in expert forum instead of interesting bridge hands. You are way too obsessed with the spot that you miss the bigger picture. If you started with ♣ A, rest should be easy for pd on this deal. He should easily see you can not defeat them if you have Tx diamond and A stiff club. Unless of course he thinks that we are a moron and forgot to cash the ♥A before we played diamond.

It is a nice defense problem hand to be put in your files imo, asking North what to do after winning the ♦Q .