[plaur]

Scoring: IMP

1♠ - 2NT - 3♠ - 4♣
4♠ - 5♣ - p - p
X

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1♠ acol, may be 4
2NT explained as "both minors"
3♠ limit, but really no agreements over 2NT

Intermediate players all around. First game of 32 board match. First game after christmas so we are all a bit rusty :-)

I lead ♣ 5. My thoughts were: We have the majority of HCP's. They have distributional hands. It is probably a matter of how much we set them. I want to limit their ruffing so plan is to get back on the lead and lead ♣ A and another ♣ (depending on dummy).

Please critize lead

Edit: 2NT both minors, sorry

[luke warm]

while a trump lead is usual vs. a 2 suiter, how do you know your side has the majority of points? i don't know your agreements, but was 3♠ merely competitive? you might as well kill the ♦K, which makes your hand average at best

in any case, i think i'd lead the ♣A and another club, maybe partner can somehow get a diamond trick

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

small club looks normal.

This will ensure, that you can draw
3 rounds of trump, ... and you still
have the chance to switch, if trump
was suboptimal.

Marlowe

[FrancesHinden]

By 'both majors' I assume you mean 'both minors'

I don't think the choice of suit to lead is obvious at all, but if I am leading trumps I lead the ace. The usual idea behind a low trump from Axx is to allow either defender to play a second round when they get in. Here howeer it seems extremely unlikely that partner has more than one club, and even if he has it is also unlikely that he has an entry and we do not. So if we are trying to get trumps played, I lead the ace. What's more, by leading the ace I shall still be on lead on trick 2, and I can change tack to trying to cash major suit winners if necessary.

As to whether a club or a spade is right at trick one, I think it's a bit of a guess. A spade is probably right if the opposite spades split 2-2, while a trump is most likely to be right if EW do not have the ace of diamonds.

I am sufficiently worried about the diamond suit that I think I lead a (count requesting) spade. If declarer has a singleton diamond he isn't taking that many ruffs when I have A10x trumps which gives me some reasssurance.

I'm not at all confident about this however and could possibly persauded that either the ace of trumps or even potentially a heart is right. I don't think a diamond is likely to be the winning defence, however....

[Gerben42]

Not so easy as Frances said. I think I also lead ♠K.
The ♦ suit looks menacing but at least I can stop them by overruffing. And then lead Ace and another ♣ if need be.

[joker_gib]

Gerben42, on Jan 25 2006, 01:47 PM, said:

Not so easy as Frances said. I think I also lead ♠K.
The ♦ suit looks menacing but at least I can stop them by overruffing. And then lead Ace and another ♣ if need be.

Ditto.

That ♦K scares me

Alain