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To me a small spade looks best. Partner is known to be broke pointwise, but he could still hold ♠10, and with ♣A and one of the diamond honors in my RHO I'd be able to set the contract single handedly.
If the remaining spades are 2-5-2 I am still able to unblock them.
Routine lead problem a deeper look.
#21
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Posted 2007-February-23, 17:07
#22
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Posted 2007-February-24, 09:10
Low H seems less dangerous than a spade...
#23
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Posted 2007-February-26, 15:12
I find that no matter what card I lead from QJxx, the opposing side seems to always have the cards to gain an extra trick in the suit (at least more often than they have a right to, anyway lol).
Once you decide that partner cannot have the spade A or K, this makes the spade lead very unattractive, to me. Partner would specifically have to hold the 10, but the odds are 2-1 against his doing so (two opponents hands for it to be in, one partner hand).
Put this against leading a heart. Now all we need is for partner to hold 5 or 6 hearts. If I were to decide to lead a heart based on this....I would at least consider leading the Ace to cater against a stiff honor in dummy. If hearts are 2-2, leading the ace costs nothing. If they are 3-1, declarer will likely have two stops anyway, but if partner happened to have J10xxx and we caught a stiff honor in dummy, declarer now only has one stop (he had two if we led a small heart).
Granted, I would only consider this at Imps....
Once you decide that partner cannot have the spade A or K, this makes the spade lead very unattractive, to me. Partner would specifically have to hold the 10, but the odds are 2-1 against his doing so (two opponents hands for it to be in, one partner hand).
Put this against leading a heart. Now all we need is for partner to hold 5 or 6 hearts. If I were to decide to lead a heart based on this....I would at least consider leading the Ace to cater against a stiff honor in dummy. If hearts are 2-2, leading the ace costs nothing. If they are 3-1, declarer will likely have two stops anyway, but if partner happened to have J10xxx and we caught a stiff honor in dummy, declarer now only has one stop (he had two if we led a small heart).
Granted, I would only consider this at Imps....
Is the word "pass" not in your vocabulary?
So many experts, not enough X cards.
So many experts, not enough X cards.
#24
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Posted 2007-February-27, 03:25
I initially thought small ♠. The idea of a high ♠ doesn't thrill me. Maybe the J. I actually think on reflection that low ♥ might be better because it doesn't need partner to have length or an honour to work... it might just work if ♥s break 4333 around the table.
The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.