[Wainfleet]

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A pickup partner led the ♥A. Could you explain the rationale please.
I ran this through Jack - Jack led the ♥A so it's obviously OK. I thought that vs a suit contract you should not lead the ace at trick 1 unless you also have the King.

[HardVector]

Its not unreasonable here. Most of the time, I tell people not to lead unsupported aces, but here it's got some play. Your side needs to get 4 tricks to beat 4♠, and partner can see the A♥ and maybe the A♦. Where are the other 2? Partner is hoping to find you with a singleton heart, get a ruff, get back in with a diamond and give another ruff.

[pescetom]

Or even just to see the dummy and figure out if there is any chance of one or even two diamonds tricks before declarer makes them disappear.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I would assume, that the Ace of diamonds is better.
The idea is the same, you want to have a look at dummy, and decide,
if you have to switch.
As it is, the Ace of diamonds is worse, because partner opened a weak 2
with a 7 carder, and the remaining diamonds are 3-0.
Given the vulnerability, the weak 2 is not bad, but the 7 carder is still
not the most likely holding partner will have.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[TylerE]

P_Marlowe, on 2022-July-19, 08:08, said:

Hi,

I would assume, that the Ace of diamonds is better.

I would assume the Ace of Diamonds is quite a bit worse, as given the X it's somewhat likely getting ruffed, and it's not that unusual for W to have the Kd here. Diamond preempts can be a bit suspect.

I think the real mistake here is to open 2♦. That's the kind of bid that destroys partnership trust. Open 3♦ or pass. By underselling the length you're impeding partner's ability to further the preempt considerably. Ax or even stiff A is pretty good opposite 7... much less good opposite 6.