Some Lead Questions

Today was a disappointing outing at the League Cup Losers' Section match, against NUS(B), which we are expected to win against. In the end, it only ends up us as 44-11X... Kenna THRASHED!

Anyway here are some lead questions which led to like a total of 50 imps swing:-

1. You are holding this hand:-

S Axxxx
H AK
D Qxx
C xxx

The bidding has gone like this: After opening 1S as the dealer, LHO bids 2S which is alerted as Michaels' Cue Bid. Your partner, without any hesitation, bids 4S, which even without interference is taken as a weak bid holding a super fit in spades. RHO bids a 4NT, which signals asking for minor suit. You passed and LHO bids 5D, showing dimes as the long minor suit. Your partner doubles and RHO rescues the bidding to 5H, which u doubled based on your two heart tricks and a possible third trick in Ace of spade. Then it is all passed out.

So what shall you lead?

Anything u lead will be fine except a club/spade lead. Here my partner has made a fatal mistake of leading the Ace of spade, hoping to cash out the trick if dummy/declarer happens to be singleton. However, he forgot the simple idea that it would not still be late to cash that trick, providing that he could lead Ace of heart and see the dummy's hand before continuing. 5Hx= where the other table is 4Sx-2. A -80imp instead of a potential +700imp swing...

2. What will you lead from this hand against 4H?

S Qxx
H Jxxx
D AQJxx
C x

RHO opens 1H, which you gladly overcall 2D. LHO bids 3C and Partner raises u to 3D and after some competition, RHO bids 4H.

Here, a spade lead will potentially give a trick if declarer holds AKJ, while a heart lead may diminish the heart loser. A dime lead may potentially give away a trick if king dime is not with p while a club lead may help establish their strong suit and discards dime losers. Hard choice isn't it?

Answer: I was holding this hand and I got scolded by my p for the only mistake that I felt I have made on today. Sadly the answer is a dime lead as my partner has the king of dime, while I have led a spade that allows the declarer to have no spade loser, establishing the last spade to discard a dime, allowing 4H to make. If the king of diamond in my p's hand becomes king of spade, how different the complexion of the game it will be? Still I'm the one who has to make that tough decision. Anyway club is the best lead, pointed out by yh...

3. Okay last qn...: Tough bidding qn

Imagine you are holding this hand:-

S 876
H 109x
D KQ976
C Q9

Partner opens 1C, which u play as short clubs while RHO interferes with a 2D weak bid. Passing seems to be a correct decision here and LHO bids 2H. Your partner doubles!

OMG! A double here which is passed by RHO. Normally a double would signal a takeout for spades and clubs, and it would be at least 4 clubs and 4 spades. So the question is:- what are the rest of my partner's cards?

It can be 2 diamonds at most, if you trust the opps bidding of 2D. Then he would surely at least 2 hearts as with 6 clubs and 4 spades (can't be more than 4 as he would have bid 1S on opening), he could have an easy bid of 3C. So it could be 5-2-2-4, 4-3-2-4 or other more freakish shapes.

Would you try a pass playing with a possible 5 trumps in between u and your p, a 2NT bid to show dime stop (your p is more likely to have a heart stop than dime stop based on the distribution) or 3C, hoping to sign off?

And my p chose 3C. This led to me thinking he has at least 4 clubs and 5C can be a good option, which went down 2 eventually. A 2NT bid would be more sound here if the thinking process is thought out more carefully.

Other mistakes were missing a 6S where we stopped in 4H-1 (could have made on an outside chance, but could have reached on further forcing and evaluation), zh mis-declaring a 3NT board and my p (again!) mis-defending a 4S contract which can go down by 3. Nuff said abt the day! Haix... Shan't really blame him and must work with him to improve on our mistakes!

Vesak Day Special

Finally had a reunion with my dear partner Zehan after a close-to-one-month of hiatus... Dunno how we did (coz we left for our SICC League match soon after the special) but it was quite a comfortable performance...

Our first top board came as a result of opps mistake rather than good play on our part:-

East was holding:

S 4
H AKQJ6
D A953
C JT2

Usually this warrants an opening of 1H, but Liu chooses to open on a 1NT, considering it is N-S Vul and an opening of 1NT may find our side missing game coz it is usually hard to overcall on 1NT. His partner bids a 2H (jacoby xfer to spades) and Liu bids 2NT as no spade support, minimum hand. His partner seeing no fit in spades and yet having values bid 3NT.

And I, sitting south, was holding this hand:

S KQJ83
H 974
D 4
C 9863

A lead of King spade saw him ducking the first trick and I continued thereafter with the Queen of spade taken by the ace, at the same time shocked that he has only a spade in his 1NT balanced opening. After cashing the other top 8 tricks, he has to concede control to my p who has a totally wondering dime holding. +600 for this board for them!

Looks like a whole good deal when 5H is making.

West was holding:

S AT762
H T532
D Q7
C AK

One dime and one spade to be lost on normal play. In this case, West could have called a 2C (stayman) to ask for a possible heart fit. In any case, 4H could have been easily found.

Our next board came as a result of some luck which gave us an unbeatable top. (Board 13, more to be discussed)