[daveharty]

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What do you lead and why?

[pooltuna]

for me this is a really ugly hand I would choose between a trump and breaking the ♣ tenace, with a preference for a trump

[BunnyGo]

I'm torn. I think that I'm worried about our club tricks disappearing on diamonds. Perhaps I'm too worried, but I lead the club A. Second choice is a trump.

[mike gill]

I would lead the cA. Diamonds are breaking for them, so even if this blows a trick it may be a trick we weren't getting anyway.

[whereagles]

Spade Q. Pard can easily have Axx over dummy's king and afterwards cross a club.

[daveharty]

whereagles, on 2011-June-24, 10:32, said:

Spade Q. Pard can easily have Axx over dummy's king and afterwards cross a club.

You did see it was RHO that bid spades, right? That doesn't mean your lead is impossible but I wanted to be sure you didn't read the auction incorrectly.

[whereagles]

I did see he bid spades, but that doesn't mean he will have AKTx all the time. In fact, he may even have like Kxx and wanted to force.

[BunnyGo]

whereagles, on 2011-June-24, 10:32, said:

Spade Q. Pard can easily have Axx over dummy's king and afterwards cross a club.

whereagles, on 2011-June-24, 13:32, said:

I did see he bid spades, but that doesn't mean he will have AKTx all the time. In fact, he may even have like Kxx and wanted to force.

You realize that declarer bid spades. You cannot be leading through dummy's King (with partner over it) if you think the spade bidder will have a spade honor.

I'm not suggesting the spade lead is bad (I really don't know what to lead this hand), I'm suggesting you may be confused about the bidding. If you are not confused, then your posts are at least confusing me.

[nigel_k]

Partner could possibly have two useful cards but probably only one.

If that card is the ♣K we need to lead a club.

If that card is the ♠A and RHO has the ♣K and dummy is 2-2 in the black suits we need to lead a spade. ♣A will still be better than a trump though. 2♠ may not even be a real suit so I wouldn't assume that RHO has a top spade and even if RHO has the K and partner the ace, a spade could be best.

If his card is the ♦K or ♦A and the ♣K is on our right and dummy has at least two clubs we can probably get two clubs eventually on a non-club lead, so a spade or trump will work best.

Based on this I would lead the ♣A. Second choice ♠Q.

[lamford]

I think that the only chance is to play for two spade tricks, one trump and the ace of clubs, and I would lead a low spade. A top spade might not work if partner has Kx. A possible layout is North A9xx Axxxx xx Kx opposite South 10xx Kxx AKQxxx x. South's hand was improved by the 2S bid, but a spade lead still beats game. And I know it is MPs, but not beating it might be very bad as well.

[whereagles]

BunnyGo, on 2011-June-24, 13:53, said:

You realize that declarer bid spades.

LOOOOOL. You're totally right, I saw it wrong. I gotta stop this "post first, read questions later" approach, ahah.

Anyway, club ace looks more attactive from this side, that's for sure. I might still lead a spade, though this time not the queen but the small one.

[VM1973]

You should lead a spade because it's matchpoints. You cannot afford to give away tricks. Partner could easily have the A♠, A♥, or A♦ and switch to a club. Leading the A♣ caters only to the possibility that partner has K♣ and may well blow a trick. I figure leading a spade has 3 ways to win whereas leading a club only has one way to win. On a lucky day you might even find partner with A♥ and J♣ and you beat it.

Leading a trump (or a diamond) is crazy. If partner has a trump winner he's always going to get it and with you holding Jxx♦ those diamonds could run at any second. You need to cash what you can before it all goes away.

[daveharty]

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