[dosxtres]

Hi

I'm asking about general guides or treatments when your p has doubled a suit contract and you are on lead.

I'm told by some experts something like 'Never pull a trump when your partner has doubled a contract". I'm told by some other experts something like "try to pull trumps on lead"


Any suggestion about it?

1. Are there any difference when it is a parcial or a game one?

2. Are there any difference when it is MP or IMP?

3. Are the any diference if you have overcalled? Partners double expecting i lead my own suit?

Do you know any web to read about defense?


Thanks all.

[whereagles]

Some leads are clear cut, like A from AKx, but other than that virtually every lead depends on hearing the full auction and exercising judgement, double or no double.

Stuff like "always lead trumps" or "never lead trumps" are not good guidelines because they reduce judgement to a blind rule, which may work... or not

Sorry, this may have not helped much, but the point is there is no replacement for thinking

[DelfinoD]

dosxtres, on Apr 28 2006, 02:55 AM, said:

Hi

I'm asking about general guides or treatments when your p has doubled a suit contract and you are on lead.

It depends on the contract. Of course I assume that you mean a typical penalty double, not a lightner.

That's what I would do, but I'm not a good player

If the contract is low like 1 or 2, we have bigger strength, and ops don't have good trumps, we should lead a trump. Let's play as if we were declaring the contract, so trumps first. But if declared showed a good suit, for example he opened weak two, we shouldn't lead the trump. Rather lead normal.

If the contract is higher

1) ops. are strong = partner doubled because of bad trump split I think we should lead agressivly in our suit to make declarer ruff from his hand. This way we can promote partner's trumps. This way also if it happens that partner has for example already 2 trump tricks, we get a chance to quickly take our 2 tricks in other suits which could dissapear later. So no passive leads.

2) ops are weak = they are in defence, lead trump because it's the only suit they are going to take tricks in (but we can always try to lead a singleton for example too to get a better result)

[FrancesHinden]

There aren't any general rules, just like there aren't any general rules against undoubled contracts. Sometimes partner's double will help you with the lead, because you will know more about the hand. Sometimes it's a blind guess.

If you look at really top class bridge, such as the late rounds in major international competitions, you'll see people get this wrong.

Having said there are no general rules, here are some slightly less general rules on when a trump lead is a good idea.

0. Only inviolate rule: if you make a take-out double at the 1-level and partner passes, LEAD TRUMPS. Only exception is if you have a void.

0a. If you make a t/o double at the 2-level and partner passes, a trump lead is often but not always a good idea. That can be one of the hardest auctions to lead against - looking at your trump holding may help.

1a. If our side have the majority of the HCP and they have sacrificed in a fit where both of their hands have trump length, lead trumps. (Typical auction: 1H (1S) 2S good raise (4S) Double or (1H) 1NT (3H) 3NT (4H) P P x ).

1b. If you have all the side suits locked up, so their only source of tricks is trumps, lead trumps. (Typically after one of your partnership has shown a strong balanced hand).

2. If one of the opponents has shown a 2-suiter, you want to lead trumps if they are planning to ruff the side-suit in the short hand (or cross-ruff) but you often want to force declarer by leading your side's suit if they want to set up the side suit. This is one of the hardest ones to get right, but you can be guided to some extent whether you have stuff in the sidesuit.

3. If one of the opponents has shown a 3-suiter (e.g. via a Roman 2D opener), lead trumps.

4. If RHO has pre-empted and partner has passed a take-out double so his trumps are under declarer, don't lead trumps unless you think declarer is going to take ruffs in dummy.

5. If they have sacrificed with a huge fit at the 6- or 7- level, lead trumps if you suspect a complete cross-ruff or you have nothing better to do, but it's often better to take a ruff yourself, or give partner one, if possible.

6. If they are playing in declarer's second suit (so he has a longer side suit), and dummy is known to have more length in the second suit, lead trumps UNLESS losers will be discarded quickly on the first suit. Another tricky one to guess!