[jeffford76]

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IMPs->VPs, 28 board match (1 of 6 matches)

What do you lead?

[Fluffy]

jack of clubs

[gnasher]

Partner had two chances to double clubs for a lead. I think that, having denied a strong club holding by passing 4♣, he should have doubled 5♣ if he had the queen. Hence I don't expect a club to achieve anything useful.

On the other hand, nothing else is very appealing, so I'd lead a club anyway.

[sasioc]

I don't think he has denied the ♣Q by failing to double 5♣ - surely he doesn't want to put you off a better lead if you have it and also doesn't want to potentially solve a guess?

[whereagles]

Yuck. The book lead seems to be a club, but for some reason I get this feel a trump is right, so that's what I lead.

[dwar0123]

Wow, never would have considered a lead directing double with just a queen.

[MrAce]

sasioc, on 2011-October-10, 06:53, said:

I don't think he has denied the ♣Q by failing to double 5♣ - surely he doesn't want to put you off a better lead if you have it and also doesn't want to potentially solve a guess?

He did not say only "pd failed to dbl 5♣" He said pd failed to DBL both 4 and 5 ♣. Thus not dbling 4♣ but dbling 5♣ should not take pd away from his lead if he has a clear one.

Although i am really not a fan of this kind of logic, thinking that pd will wait with DBL card in his hand and try to tell entire world what he has and what not. Especially with an unprotected Q and opponents are heading for slam. Not even mentioning the space you create for opponents when they are cueing at 4 level just to tell u have a Q in artificial suit.

Imo the information of passes over artificial bids/cues are overvalued in general.

[Phil]

I think the lack of a double (2nd opportunity) here is valid. Its unlikely the knowledge of ♣Q can help declarer, but it could help us on lead.

Here's a reasonable construction where a heart can be right:

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I think its pretty likely declarer would ruff the 2nd heart high.

[Siegmund]

Put me down for a spade. Not so much because of any lead directing implications, but just because of the first 4 bids of the auction sounding like a good time to cut down on ruffs if they found their way to a 29-point slam.

The CJ seems pretty desperate to me, more likely to be a "heads he wins, tails he breaks even" kind of guess at trick 1 rather than one that could actually cost him his contract if he misguesses.

Edited to add: re the implications of East not making a lead-directing double... I think the point isnt that East would ever double holding just a queen -- but that he WOULD likely double holding KQ (or KJ or even Kx) behind the club cuebidder, so if declarer has a T1 guess in clubs he's going to get it right.

[MrAce]

Siegmund, on 2011-October-10, 21:10, said:

Edited to add: re the implications of East not making a lead-directing double... I think the point isnt that East would ever double holding just a queen -- but that he WOULD likely double holding KQ (or KJ or even Kx) behind the club cuebidder, so if declarer has a T1 guess in clubs he's going to get it right.

You hold KJT... ♣ so i didnt understand your point here. Anyway Not sure if everyone DBLS with Kx KJx behind the cuer especially if cue is not an obvious honor cue.

Check Bermuda Bowl hand records where there is a hand defender holds AQxx ♣ and his RHO cued 5♣ and they passed. To be honest i would not but as i said, its in forums that people think pd waits with DBL card in his hand and tries to DBL whenever he can with little things, which seems to me the opposite case in top level games.

[Free]

I'd lead the ♣J, it seems too obvious to be successful on the forum.

I don't understand why someone has to Dbl 0/1/2 times to show or deny the ♣Q, opps must love to play against you since they always know how to finesse...

[jeffford76]

Thanks for the responses. I was curious whether the failure to double 5C would tend to deny the queen. On the actual hand dummy has running hearts opposite declarer's stiff and dummy has a stiff high diamond, so the only way to beat the hand is to lead a red suit on the go, and for partner to lead the other one when they win the trump ace. They can't pull trump and get back to dummy, and if they try to run the hearts first you get an extra trump trick. Apologies, but I don't remember the exact hands.

[Siegmund]

Quote

You hold KJT... ♣ so i didnt understand your point here.

My point was that if declarer has an ace-opposite-queen position in clubs, and I lead the CJ to force declarer to take an immediate view in the clubs... declarer is going to notice that my partner failed to double clubs (which he might have done, had he held the CK behind the club cuebidder), and is going to correctly place the CK with me a lot more than 50% of the time.

[MrAce]

Siegmund, on 2011-October-18, 18:31, said:

My point was that if declarer has an ace-opposite-queen position in clubs, and I lead the CJ to force declarer to take an immediate view in the clubs... declarer is going to notice that my partner failed to double clubs (which he might have done, had he held the CK behind the club cuebidder), and is going to correctly place the CK with me a lot more than 50% of the time.

Oh ok thanks, i thought you meant something else, my bad.