Thanks fro the response, Todd. I was hoping others might weigh in but I guess not.
I was declarer, I made my slam, it can be set, later I was asking myself whether it is reasonable to think it should have been set. Before displaying the hand I will summarize why I jumped to 6. One question is whether opening leader can figure that must be about what I was thinking, and then come to the right conclusion.
From declarer's (my) viewpoint:
Partner is a passed hand. I thought a grand unlikely. How about a small slam? Maybe, maybe not. Now I could have found out whether my partner had the
A but that info by itself would not be conclusive. Partner raised 2
to 3
not to 4
. If all he had was
KQxxx and 3 small spades, I would think 4
would be right. A way of saying he had absolutely nothing else to tell me about his hand. Can I find out about partner's minor suit holding? Not easily I think.
So I came to the conclusion: Maybe there are 12 tricks ready to go, but if not then maybe I will have a better chance of a favorable lead if I just go directly to 6
and let them guess.
Suppose opening leader, OL, attributes this line of thought to me. Does that help in selecting a lead? Maybe. And maybe not. Maybe it depends on scoring. Matchpoints complicates matters.
If declarer hopes to reach 12 tricks by establishing some heart tricks, OL can see this will go well. In that case maybe he needs to build up a trick so that as soon as he goes up with the
A he can cash another trick. A
lead might do that if partner has the Q. And, of course, he does. A
lead is less likely to build a quick trick since partner would need the KQ, or the KJ if the Q is in dummy.. We know declarer has the three missing aces unless he is a total nut.
Otoh: Dummy also has the
Q. If instead dummy has the
Q, leading the
K would be a great gift to declarer. As noted, dummy probably has at least a little something for his 3
rather than 4
. As he does, but in
rather than
.
Here are all of the hands:
J96
KQ542
Q9
763
T853
void
AJ6
T983
T764
J532
K2
QJT95
AKQ742
7
AK8
A84
As is so often the case in bridge, I have enough tricks providing they don't get 2 tricks first. I also got a
opening lead, won by the Q on the board, Small spade to my hand learning of the 4-0 split, and now a small heart from hand. Not surprisingly, E went up. There is now no way to stop me from pitching two clubs on the
KQ. E could have ducked the heart. I then lose no hearts but I still have these 2 losing clubs to worry about. I can manage a club ruff after I duck a
and pitch a
on a
, so all is well.
This hand reflects how I see bridge. I don't know if I should have bid 6
, it's a bit of a lucky make. I don't know if OL should find the setting
lead. Given the 4-0
break, it's a good thing partner produced the
J. The 9 helps also. Bridge consists of a lot of choices, very few of them are sure bets.
I keep hoping there will be more Forum discussion. I tire of talking to myself. Thanks for your response.