Here's two quickies for you to chew on while I try to recover:
First, a poll:
You hold:
 Q3 |
 AKT2 |
 T753 |
 Q53 |
At teams, vulnerable against not, pard opens a "good 14 to 17" 1NT. RHO bids 2S promising five spades and at least four cards in a minor. Your five options are:
(A) Negative double
(B) 3NT denying a spade stopper
(C) 3NT showing a spade stopper
(D) Stayman denying a spade stopper
(E) Stayman showing a spade stopper
What's your decision?
Next, a lead problem:
You hold:
| AK64 |
| AT52 |
| K53 |
| 74 |
You're playing teams, vulnerable against not. You open 1NT, "good 11 to 14". LHO bids a Landy 2C, showing both majors. Partner jumps to 3NT. RHO pulls to 4C -- lefty thinks that this asks for the better major. So LHO bids 4H, which is doubled by partner. RHO looks a little annoyed and bids 5C. You double, and everyone passes. What's your lead?
Posts
4 comments:
(A) Tough one. I like Stayman showing a spade stopper.
If RHO has sAK and no clear outside entry, then he will probably underlead them. My second choice is negative double. I don't like the 3NT bids since we may miss a heart fit, which could be really bad here.
(B) It's either the sA/K or a trump. Anything else would be pretty clairvoyant. I would lead the high spade.
On the first one, there are two 3NT bids shown, I make the one that shows a stopper. Let them figure it out.
Second one, i lead a big spade, the one that is according to your agreements. I don't like a trump lead, this doesn't rate to be a crossruff hand.
i'd bid stayman with a stopper on the first one. with a lot of partners i play the stopper-showing aspect of lebensohl off after a two-suited intervention; playing those methods i'd feel good about cuebidding and then passing if partner bid 3nt.
my instinct is to lead trump on the 2nd one...it may not be vital to do that before cashing a high spade, but on general principles when i'm pretty sure a "steal" is on, i like to get the trump on the table as soon as possible.
On the first one I really would like to be able to bid 3sp asking for half a sp stopper, but given that this is not an option and we are really trying to find the best bid I think i go with stayman with a stopper, we really do want the overcaller to be on lead here.
On the second one,first thing i do is check style, if lefy has a 5/5 hand something like 5512 i desperately want to be leading trumps . all i need is an opp with 1156 playing 5cl -2 for 300/500 when we have a cold 630.
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