[Antrax]

Vul. none, matchpoints.

P-(1NT)-P-(3NT) AP

♠Q9876 ♥Q97 ♦J653 ♣6
Your lead.

[mich-b]

♠9

[KamalK]

Antrax, on 2012-March-12, 02:21, said:

Vul. none, matchpoints.

P-(1NT)-P-(3NT) AP

♠Q9876 ♥Q97 ♦J653 ♣6
Your lead.

Isnt ♠9 normal lead?

[Antrax]

Yeah, it's normal (or the 7). I still gave the matter thought and found another lead, which worked terribly (once more votes pile up, I'll explain what I was thinking and you'll explain why I was wrong)

[JLOGIC]

S7 for me as well (I think leading the 9 is more of a european thing in general).

[bluecalm]

In Poland, from my experience, most people lead 7 but many good pairs lead a 9.
Leading a 9 goes very well with polish style of leads though where 9 is either H9x exactly third or T9x+ or H987, you could easily tell which one it is about always.

I think there might be some advantage of leading a 9 (trapping T in dummy when 7 would be unreadable) but those don't come up too often.

[BunnyGo]

Antrax, on 2012-March-12, 02:21, said:

Vul. none, matchpoints.

P-(1NT)-P-(3NT) AP

♠Q9876 ♥Q97 ♦J653 ♣6
Your lead.

I would think hard about the heart 7, but then would lead the spade 7.

[Codo]

I would think hard about the spade 7 but then would lead the spade 9.

[Antrax]

BunnyGo wins the "get into my head" prize. I expected spades to be 5-3-3-2 and to not have an entry if/when they become established. So, I led a heart looking for partner, found partner with ♠KJTx and ♥Jxx and 660 was not a good score
(if the hand doesn't add up, it's because dummy was this: ♠- ♥xxxx ♦AKQx ♣J9xxx. Not a strong pair)
So, what was wrong in my thinking? When DO you not lead your longest suit in this auction?

[Codo]

If I have a five card suit, I would lead it with the slightest excuse.Here I may have an entry with the queen of spades, so I go for it.
When do I not lead my longest suit:
-Partner bid something else and I cannot conclude that his suit will be worse
-Most times if I have no chance to get my suit running.
-If I have a weak hand and jsut four card suits.

[the hog]

Spade 7 or 9, depending on agreements. Why lead another suit?

[BunnyGo]

Some good players advocate leading a 4 card suit when you dont have many entries and a weak 5 card suit because it's more likely to hit partner. That said, this auction usually calls for leading a major, and the Qxx isnt worth it. If they'd bid stayman and opener had bid 2 spades, I'd've lead my diamond.

[Codo]

Leading a four card suit to find partners long suit must be inferior to lead a three card suit. There had been an interview with Rodwell (?) about this some month ago in the BW.

[wyman]

This is pairs, right? We can solve this problem without even asking which lead is "better." Just ask:
(1) Is this a normal auction [seems probable, unless opps play an unusual NT range]
(2) Ok, then what will the field lead?

[daveharty]

Sometimes, with hands like these, I try and talk myself out of making the "robot" fourth-best lead (or systemic equivalent) by going through all sorts of mental gymnastics. Sometimes I succeed in convincing myself, and lead something else. I almost always end up regretting it. My advice (and it's to myself as much as anyone else) is to save your energy for other sorts of decisions and don't tie yourself in knots.

[Antrax]

Heh, that's almost precisely my experience - whenever I stop to think, I make mistakes nobody else makes. I thought it's because I'm still not experienced enough. Not sure whether to be encouraged or depressed, really

[Phil]

I think if you talked yourself out of a spade lead you are using faulty reasoning.

Plus its matchpoints!

[nigel_k]

A heart is not a bad lead and could easily work. Your spades are just a bit too good for it. If you had a four card spade suit, or even Jxxxx instead of Q9xxx, then a heart would be fine.

The matchpoint argument is correct if your partnership is among the strongest card players in the room, or opponents are unusually weak, because you will have other chances to beat the room on this hand. If not, just try to choose the best percentage action in normal contracts and don't worry about the room.

[quiddity]

Agree with the others, this looks like a normal spade lead. If I had a bad hand and a small doubleton heart then a heart lead is more attractive. It might work as a passive lead (when a spade lead from the queen blows a trick) and it might work as an attacking lead hoping to hit partner's five-card suit. Leading from Qxx is more dangerous and seems less likely to work.

[the hog]

Codo, on 2012-March-12, 06:00, said:

Leading a four card suit to find partners long suit must be inferior to lead a three card suit. There had been an interview with Rodwell (?) about this some month ago in the BW.

You have misunderstood the argument. The point in leading a 4 card suit as opposed to 5 is not to find partner's suit. Marston wrote an article about this and is an advocate of these leads.