[AL78]

This is, I think, an example of one of the primary reasons I lose at bridge, sitting there with two or more options, where at least one of them will be a losing one, and I take the loser.

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I am on lead with this collection with no obvious good lead visible.

I started with the ♦A, got the ♦4 from partner which I took as discouraging, declarer following with the ♦7. What do I do now? I don't want to lead a spade and pick the suit up for declarer. I don't want to lead a heart because it looks like a frozen suit. A club doesn't look very productive either, will I be leading round to the jack? I eventually went along the principle that if I've opened a suit and nothing great happened, don't start opening other suits, so I led another diamond. Unfortunately this was the only lead to let the slam through. Declarer held KQT7 so I set up two discards for him to throw the two losing hearts.

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I really need to stop doing things like this. There were a couple of other times I took a wrong view, and I'd estimate together they cost us nearly 10%.

[Cyberyeti]

N has done you by using normal blackwood, if he used voidwood in clubs, finding the club switch would be easy, it's pretty likely to be safe anyway, particularly if you switch to one that looks like a short suit. If partner had ♦Kx declarer has 5 and they're not going anywhere.

[AL78]

Cyberyeti, on 2020-November-13, 15:02, said:

N has done you by using normal blackwood, if he used voidwood in clubs, finding the club switch would be easy, it's pretty likely to be safe anyway, particularly if you switch to one that looks like a short suit. If partner had ♦Kx declarer has 5 and they're not going anywhere.

I was hoping partner could have had the diamond ten to some number.

[LBengtsson]

BE COOL. Trick 2 lead small ♣ in tempo. You can see dummy.No good declarer with ♣Jx(x) in his hand is going to let it run to ♣J. Does a good declarer want to go down at trick 2 ??? That is psychology. If declarer has ♣Jx(x) he can finesse you later any way. Put pressure on declarer trick 2.

[akwoo]

With some of my partners I've switched to "Opening lead of an ace asks for a suit preference signal."

[pilowsky]

Your cock-up seems flaccid to me. Perhaps try something passive next time .

[wuudturner]

You did not want to lead a heart because hearts MAY have been a frozen suit. So instead, you lead the ace of diamonds, which was certainly a frozen suit. Leading the ace there gives them two tricks in the suit instead of one. When you lead an ace, you give away a tempo. You help them to set up their side suit tricks. Leading an ace on a hand like this is an act of procrastination. I don't know what to lead, and I don't want to make a choice, so I'll lead an ace, after which I still won't know what to lead, but that will be in the future.

Generally aces are better employed to take kings and queens. That you don't love your other lead options does not make the ace a good lead here. A passive lead makes some sense, and a heart is the closest thing to a passive lead you can find.