what do you lead?

thad.jpg

Thad Cole, photo by Peg Kaplan

On lead against 6 :S: you hold:
:S: 4
:H: KJ95
:D: T4
:C: QJ5432

Does your choice change on this bidding? Unobstructed NS bidding:
1 :S: - 2 :C: ;
2 :H: - 2 :S: ;
3 :H: - 4 :S: ;
4 NT - 5 :C: ;
6 :S:

Make up your mind, before checking out the story in the comments.

Published by stacy on January 26th, 2008 tagged Bridge


6 Responses to “what do you lead?”

  1. stacy Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    We played this board against our good friends Thad Cole and Wayne Snider. Thad, the perfect man, handed me a zero.

    My dummy was a little surprise, George tabled:
    :S: Jxx
    :H: xx
    :D: AKQJxx
    :C: xx

    and I held:
    :S: AKQxx
    :H: Axxxx
    :D: x
    :C: Ax

    After the :D: T I was out of luck. The only thing I could see that might let me make it was 3-2 spades, which wasn’t happening.

    Here’s what I wonder: George pulled the wrong card and said he jumped to 4 :S: to try and keep the situation under control. If he’d bid 2 :D: , would a club lead have been normal?

  2. Peg Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    You were one unlucky lady! You woulda chalked it up against me… I’m a trump leader.

    (And IF you believe Geo pulled the wrong card…. :))

  3. Bob Katz Says:
    January 26th, 2008 at 9:47 pm

    A very interesting hand. A trump lead against a small slam is wrong the vast majority of the time. But this hand appears to be the exception since it looks like a cross ruff of some sort maay be in order with opener having such good clubs and hearts.

    I think this might have been avoided on the following auction:

    1S-2D
    2H-2S
    3C-4D
    4N-5C
    5N-7N

    4D should show a source of tricks and thus opener can pretty much guarantee 5S,4D,2 aces and responder needs something else to have his bid (in this case a 5th and 6th diamond.) At worst it should be on 4-3 diamonds.

    After opener bids 5N guaranteeing all the keycards, responder can count 13 tricks in no trump. It only needs 4-1 spades and 4-2 diamonds. Opener cannot have a diamond void and might even hold 2 diamonds.

  4. Suzi Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:32 am

    I would lead the DT because it is the unbid suit and doesn’t look like it could cost my side. If George pulls the right card, I would certainly lead a club… not just because it is the unbid suit, but also because it is my length and could be right in so many ways!

  5. Suzi Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:37 am

    For the record, Stan lead a trump.

  6. Suzi Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:39 am

    And maybe Geo should bid 6NT once he hears this auction and knows he has six solid diamonds… 7NT was cold.

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