Thursday, April 10, 2014

A misfit auction that doesn't call for a trump lead

Playing a 10-board online robot tourney, I am leading until the last board.  On the last board, I hold:

and the auction goes (I am South):

and it is now my lead.

What do you lead?  Does this auction call for a trump lead?

Normally, if you double for takeout and partner passes, you ought to lead trumps.  The idea is to cut-down ruffs in dummy.  And that's what I did, to poor effect (click Next to see the play):



But here, even though they have had a misfit auction, the high-card points are evenly divided. South is better off establishing side-suits.  Leading a club was worth 91% and a win.  Leading a trump got me 50% and second place.

3 comments:

  1. Notice the bidding. East had J-10 of hearts and bid over 2H which is pathetic.

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    Replies
    1. True. East probably thought he plays the cards better than West :)

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    2. Well, I am slow. It took me a day to realize that Dave was pointing out that this is not a misfit auction -- EW do have a fit in hearts. That's the real reason why the trump lead didn't work.

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