[Cascade]

Scoring: IMP

(1♣*) 3♦ (3NT) Pass
(6♥) All Pass
* 14+ any shape

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World Class opponents (Top ten Bermuda Bowl datums)

Follow up question:

If you wouldn't lead a diamond what would you lead?

[mike777]

This reminds me of a recent comment I think Michael Rosenberg made recently.
The main point I remember him saying is not leading your longest suit hurts much more often than not leading it in situations such as this.

Hopefully one of the BBO forum members can dig out the exact quote and context somewhere.

[dake50]

I like C7 to look like a single.

[the hog]

I would lead a club on this. Opener's jump to 6H indicates little worry about the D situation, and the 3NT bid bothers me as well. Ax opp KTx?

[Rossoneri]

I would go with ♦Q...

[655321]

Perhaps a club for me. The leaper to 6♥ might have a void, if so, probably in diamonds, perhaps opposite the AK allowing 2 pitches, and in the worst case, no entries to dummy... unless we lead a diamond.

But there are a lot of 'if's for that particular worst case to occur, it must be extremely unlikely that all these bad things happen.

I assume there is a story behind this poll. If I let the slam through by leading a diamond I would not feel as though I had done anything stupid. Equally, if I led a club and a diamond was necessary, still my conscience would be clear.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

pretty good, I was torn between the comment and asking
you to be my teacher, ... sry, no money involved for
teaching me.

If I dont lead a diamond, due to a penalty, ... I guess I would
go with a club.
As it is I prefer passive leads, and diamond is the passive choice.
From the bidding, we dont know, if 6H was shooting or not, most
likely it was, because 4H is certainly to play, and if he believed
that 6H has a fair chance of making, the question is, if he would
really risk bidding 5H and looking silly afterwards (either way -1/+1).
Hence I would say, the bidding favors a passive lead, but as
I said, I prefer passive, and I may just looking for reasons to
justify.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[mikeh]

Every suit can cost... so that brings us to the first issue: aggression or passivity?

The aggressive lead is the club, but when they have this auction and we are looking at 8 hcp, I don't like our chances.

The diamond is not passive either.... imagine H10x in dummy and Hx in opener.

I think the safest lead is the heart: declarer is picking off any (unlikely) honour partner has in the suit even if we don't lead them.

So I vote for the passive trump lead, even tho I usually like the saying that there is a special place reserved in hell for leaders of singleton trumps

[bid_em_up]

Personally, I think the 3N bid over 3D is the key factor in choosing a non-diamond lead.

Dummy is quite likely to have K10x/A10x allowing declarer to make 3 tricks in the suit.

jmoo.

[the hog]

Well Wayne?

[skjaeran]

Anything could be right here, but I'd most probably lead a low club.

[nige1]

Cascade, on Aug 24 2008, 06:39 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

(1♣*) 3♦ (3NT) Pass
(6♥) All Pass
* 14+ any shape
World Class opponents (Top ten Bermuda Bowl datums). Follow up question: If you wouldn't lead a diamond what would you lead?

---

IMO ♣x = 10, ♠Q = 8, ♦Q = 7, ♥ = 2.
♦Q is OK and most unlikely to be fatal but I prefer a black suit.
Boy George may have been trying to tell us something:

"Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon
You come and go
You come and go
Loving would be easy
if the colours were like my dreams
Red, gold and green
Red, gold and green"

[Cascade]

Here is the full hand ...

Some of you picked it well - dummy had ♦ KTx and declarer ♦ Ax

Scoring: IMP

(1♣*) 3♦ (3NT) Pass
(6♥) all pass
* 14+ any

---

It seemed to me from the jump to 6♦ that declarer was not worried about diamonds. This suggested to me that he was more likely to have shortage - I suppose the ace is possible but the ace with length opposite a partner who has shown a stopper has obvious problems.

Frankly I was more worried about dummy having ♦ AK and there being one or two pitches.

Nevertheless I went for the passive and unsuccessful diamond and got -1430 for my trouble.

Note only a heart or a club will work on the hand.

A spade will only work if declarer misguesses the situation.

For us the ♠ Q is likely not to work but it might for others. It won't work for us since we underlead versus the five-level and higher. So declarer would know we don't have the Jack.