As a counterweight to all this deep analysis, here are a couple of opening lead problems. In a 20-board match the other day on BBO, interestingly we made all 12 of our contracts, and the opponents made 6 of 8 -- no misdefense, just a lot of winning finesses! The two outliers hinged on these opening leads:
1. Both vul, opps bid uncontested 1nt-2d-2h-3h-4h
You hold: KJ862 K KT4 J742
2. Neither vul, opps bid uncontested 1s-2d-2nt-3d-3s-3nt-4nt-6nt
You hold: J83 K92 5 QT9762
Tasting Menu at Jua (food)
3 years ago
5 comments:
on the first one with honors in all the suits i think i'd try a low spade. Anything could be costly...i don't have a compelling reason, but it seems the most normal lead to me.
on the second one i think i'd get aggressive and lead a low heart. there could be an outside shot that partner has the ace. of course realistically we're shooting for the queen and a diamond trick or the queen of spades.
On the first one, it's not hard to construct hands where every suit looks like a brilliant one to lead or a disaster. A club could certainly cost, but looks less likely to do so than anything else, so that's what I'm leading. On the second one, I'm with Drew on a low heart. Looks like we need to set up a trick in that suit before declarer establishes the diamonds. I'm hoping partner has the Q of H and something like JXXX of diams
#1 is definitely a huge guess, but a kind of guess that comes up a lot, so it would be great to know if one thing works even 10% more than another. I don't know, but i tend to lead from length and strength. Despite trepidation about being too strong to find partner with much, I tried a spade -- for the curious, a spade was the winner this time.
#2 is much less of a guess -- like Drew and Kenny, I think a heart is definitely the best shot, and this time it worked at the table; like a good partner Jiang had HQ and Qxx diamonds.
Hi Jon,
Out of curiosity, what was spade position around the table, when you beat 4H on a spade lead? Partner had SQx?
Regards,
Alex
Hi Alex,
Partner had Qxxx Ax xxxx xxx and you need to set up a spade or it goes away on a diamond. You could also lead HK and switch to spade, a standard case of "having a look at dummy," right? :-)
Dummy had Ax T9xxxx xx Kxx so the look might not help you -- i was ready to regret not leading a club when dummy hit :-)
Post a Comment