[MickyB]

Your lead. Five-card majors, light, wide-ranging openings. Edit: If you disagree with the [lack of] bidding, please state how you would have approached the hand. 2NT on the first round would have been a good four-card raise.

---

[mich-b]

♦K.

[cloa513]

MickyB, on 2011-September-26, 00:28, said:

Your lead. Five-card majors, light, wide-ranging openings.

---

I assume the hand is North. Low spade.

[MickyB]

cloa513, on 2011-September-26, 00:47, said:

I assume the hand is North. Low spade.

Ty, fixed.

[jdeegan]

The book lead is a small ♠. In this case, I am afraid I would lead the ♥Q. I am guessing the heart suit is divided 4 on my left and two on my right. The hope is that pard has good heart spots and can put a ♠ thru later if dummy shows some ruffing value. Otherwise, maybe he can use his heart spots to uppercut declarer.

[han]

Heart queen is the book lead.

[the hog]

Seriously, if you don't know what to lead, don't pass the x. I would never pass 1S x on this hand by the way. I am leading the H Q and preparing an apology to my partner.

[Fluffy]

anything but a club looks reasonable to me. I'd lead ♦K wich looks like the most passive before seeing dummy.

[gnasher]

I'd lead ♥Q.

I'd have bid 2NT or 2♦ over 1♠. This has a lot of potential opposite short spades, and declaring is easier than defending.

[MrAce]

Fluffy, on 2011-September-26, 03:28, said:

anything but a club looks reasonable to me. I'd lead ♦K wich looks like the most passive before seeing dummy.

I am surprised how i see it totally other way arround. Splitting spotless KQ when there is no significant urgency to do so and holding Hx in pd's suit, at a low level contract, is hell of an agressive lead imo.

I agree with all those who led ♥Q. I also agree with Hog and Andy about not sitting on this DBL for the reasons they already said.

[Phil]

MrAce, on 2011-September-26, 12:30, said:

Splitting spotless KQ when there is no significant urgency to do so and holding Hx in pd's suit, at a low level contract, is hell of an agressive lead imo.

Aggressive would not be my choice of words for the ♦K.

[MrAce]

Phil, on 2011-September-26, 13:01, said:

Aggressive would not be my choice of words for the ♦K.

You re probably right, i think i shd have said "not as passive as it looks"

[jallerton]

the hog, on 2011-September-26, 01:41, said:

Seriously, if you don't know what to lead, don't pass the x. I would never pass 1S x on this hand by the way.

I agree. Was there a call out of turn earlier in the auction which forced you to pass throughout? We are informed that partner might have opened light. The only silver lining is that if partner likes to "collect" unusual scores, he might not have realised until now that it was possible to score 360.

[MickyB]

Fair enough. How would you have bid? I almost presented it as a bidding problem, but with oppo at unfavourable, and no attractive alternative, I thought pass then pass looked fairly clear.

Talking of unusual scores - on another board it crossed my mind, after our side had passed for the first few rounds of the auction, to save for 1100 against 1620, but instead I chose a cowardly pass.

[jmcw]

han, on 2011-September-26, 01:39, said:

Heart queen is the book lead.

What book is that?

the hog, on 2011-September-26, 01:41, said:

Seriously, if you don't know what to lead, don't pass the x. I would never pass 1S x on this hand by the way. I am leading the H Q and preparing an apology to my partner.

Agree with this except the choice of leads, I'm leading a ♠.

[gnasher]

If I was planning to lead a spade, I'd be even less happy to defend. Which suit do we think declarer is ruffing in dummy?

[the hog]

gnasher, on 2011-September-26, 16:39, said:

If I was planning to lead a spade, I'd be even less happy to defend. Which suit do we think declarer is ruffing in dummy?

I also agree with this. As op is asking how to bid the hand, what is wrong with starting with a 2NT bid, unless you play that as Rubensohl or something similar?
edited.
Well Mickey I would change my methods; if you play it as a good 4 card raise, then you must bid 2NT now and not play that as scrambling.

[jallerton]

MickyB, on 2011-September-26, 15:01, said:

Fair enough. How would you have bid? I almost presented it as a bidding problem, but with oppo at unfavourable, and no attractive alternative, I thought pass then pass looked fairly clear.

I prefer both a natural and forcing 2♦ (not perfect, as it's only a 4-card suit) and a natural and invitational 2NT (not perfect as partner will expect more spade honours and a little less outside) to pass.

But best of all is a negative double; I probably only want to play in diamonds if partner can introduce the suit and I can cope with most likely continuations (including spade raises).

[han]

jmcw, on 2011-September-26, 16:33, said:

What book is that?

The book that disagrees with the book that was used by the poster leading a spade.

[whereagles]

Any lead seems fine to me. I don't think any lead in particular to be clear-cut. If something, a spade looks a bit more risky than the others.

I'd personally lead a heart, so as to shorten the hand. Our trump holding is prone to endplays.

By the way, pass to 1SX is ok. As is bidding 1NT, either now or before.