[dboxley]

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What is your lead?

[hrothgar]

I am VERY confused about the auction.

If I am reading things right I chose to double 3=3=5=2 hand.
(Reasonable I guess)

I hit the jackpot (I have 5 piece support for partner's longest suit) and I am selling out to three hearts...

In any case, I lead a top trump...

I'd like to see dummy before I firmly commit to anything.

[Fluffy]

Opponents must have 7 spades, 7 hearts at least, and 7 clubs at least, this means LHO is 4333 or 4324 and RHO is 3415 or 3424 maybe 3514 is also possible.

This helps not much, either suit could be best, even a black one.

I wanna look at dummy before commiting too much, so I lead a red ace ♦A is best if we need to tap declarer, but awful if RHO has ♦Kx.

But it seems rather unlikelly that he has doubleton and the king, so I lead ♦A

[Free]

trumps

[rhm]

♣ten looks "obvious" to me.
Chances are good to get a ♣ ruff unless opponents have 9 clubs between them, which is unlikely given that they hold at least seven spades between them and some sort of a ♥ fit. If partner has no entry we are not likely to beat this.
I do not see what a trump lead is supposed to accomplish, what a ♣ lead does not, but the opposite is not true.
I can wait to have a look at dummy.
Admittedly I find dummy's delayed heart raise a bit strange. Does he have 4=3=3=3?

Rainer Herrmann

[gnasher]

rhm, on 2010-November-19, 05:15, said:

♣ten looks "obvious" to me.
Chances are good to get a ♣ ruff unless opponents have 9 clubs between them, which is unlikely given that they hold at least seven spades between them and some sort of a ♥ fit. If partner has no entry we are not likely to beat this.

But declarer can remove partner's entry by playing a diamond at trick two.

[rhm]

gnasher, on 2010-November-19, 09:48, said:

But declarer can remove partner's entry by playing a diamond at trick two.

Can happen. It depends where partner's entry is. Also scissor coups are often not so obvious.
I never said that that a ♣ ruff is guaranteed.
What opening lead is more attractive and why?

Rainer Herrmann

[rogerclee]

It seems pretty likely that they have 9 clubs actually. If they have 8 clubs then LHO must be 4324 (so RHO is 3514 or maybe 3424, see below), which would make his bidding insane, but I guess it's possible depending on how bad/aggressive your opponents are. What is also clear is that at least one of them has diamond shortness, since giving LHO 4324 and RHO 3424 makes both of them bad/crazy.

With this information I don't think it is necessary very often at all to lead any particular card. We can be aggressive and lead a spade, but that could easily be disastrous and does not seem necessary at all, since often they will not have a useful pitch, and we can do it later anyway. A heart is not going to accomplish anything either for similar reasons and might blow the suit. Also a diamond is similar and might blow a tempo. In the end I would lead a club, not because I think I am going to get a ruff like rhm does, but because it's just as passive as a heart or diamond but without the downside. Also if our opponents are nuts we might get our ruff, so that is an additional upside. A heart is the worst of the non-spade leads, and a spade lead is clearly the worst.

[gnasher]

rhm, on 2010-November-19, 15:07, said:

Can happen. It depends where partner's entry is.

I suppose partner might have an ace, but if he does the contract probably has no hope.

Quote

Also scissor coups are often not so obvious.

If I lead the 10 of a suit that they've bid and supported, it will be fairly obvious why I have done so. Maybe we should assume, because of the auction, that declarer isn't a strong player, but then that makes it an uninteresting problem (for me, anyway).

Quote

I never said that that a ♣ ruff is guaranteed.
What opening lead is more attractive and why?

Anything could be right - the whole auction is a mystery to me, starting with my first-round failure to overcall 1NT (though that worked out OK).

I don't like a club because it risks hitting partner's Qxx or Kxx. I'd probably lead a top heart because it's less likely to cost a trick immediately, and because having seen dummy and partner's suit-preference signal I may have a better idea how to defend.

[rduran1216]

I would lead a club 100% of the time. Spade is begging to give away a trick, diamond is just guessing until u see dummy, and you have trump control. whether you get your ruff or not, I start with a club.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

#1 I would have overcalled 2D, but I may have agreed, that 2D is more imited, that is currently standard, so ok
#2 I now lead the Ace of hearts to have a look at Dummy

With kind regards
Marlowe

[whereagles]

From the look of it, shapes seem to be

3352 (we)
3433 (opener)
3244 (pard)
4414 (responder)

give or take a card. That seems to call for a TRUMP lead.

[phil_20686]

I think norths bidding is consistend with 4-3-4-2 if they play a short club in that style. I am 100% sure that north does not have 4 hearts and passes 1H. Most likely he is 4-3-1-5 IMO, and wanted to suggest 4h. Still I would not pass with his hand. Maybe if the spades are really poor amd hearts too, but that does not seem possible.Perhaps Something like xxxx xxx KQx AKx.

Partner seems to have more diamonds than spades, and it seems likely to me that they might just have two 7 card fits. Un-fortuneately, that is impossible when we have a 9 card fit. (They have 22 cards in 3 suits, so most even division is 877). Probably they have 8 clubs, 7 spades and 7 hearts. It is possible that hearts is their best fit, Im inclined to just play the ace of trumps and probably follow it with k and another trump if nothing better appears.