[plaur]

---

Matchpoints.
Opponents experienced internationals.
1♠ alerted as unbalanced (4 spades and 5+ clubs)
3♥ gameforce
3NT bid like a shot
long pause before pass over 4NT.

I did not have a clue how to pick a lead here. Thoughts?

[nige1]

I rank
1. Spade.
2. Diamond.
3. Club.
4. Heart.

[thepossum]

Possum Sim (Beginner Edition 0.1) ranks

Diamond
Spade
Club
Heart



Note Possum Sim Pro has not yet hit the market

[akwoo]

Does 3♥ tend to show concentration of values? Does responder have other ways to force to game showing a (presumably 6 card) heart suit, and what would be the difference?

If 3♥ does show concentration of values, I'm leading a club - it's the only place where there is a potential second trick to set up before declarer discards all their losers on hearts.

[Cyberyeti]

akwoo, on 2019-March-25, 23:26, said:

Does 3♥ tend to show concentration of values? Does responder have other ways to force to game showing a (presumably 6 card) heart suit, and what would be the difference?

If 3♥ does show concentration of values, I'm leading a club - it's the only place where there is a potential second trick to set up before declarer discards all their losers on hearts.

I think the key can be to remove an entry from dummy (for various reasons, not least that declarer may have the choice of abandoning heart winners or squeezing himself later, declarer could easily be void in hearts), where is the most likely place to do that ? for me it's in spades and at IMPs I would lead a spade, at MPs it's more complicated.

I'd also be interested in the difference between 3♥ and 2♦ then 3♥.

[johnu]

I lead a diamond going for the ruff. But contract is 4NT so no ruff possible. Too bad, still lead a diamond.

[Winstonm]

I think perhaps an attack on entries is needed in order to tempt or even force declarer to overtake the singleton J of hearts - but I can't think of a hand consistent with the bidding where that works.