On the lead problem, which club would you choose? Agreements differ, I think, when partner’s opened one club (promising no more than three) with the leader holding something like 10-8-6.

Would you mind offering some additional discussion, including your own preferences?

Hi Jim2,

Yes, I would lead a club and have a decided preference for the 6. A card as high as the ten should never be discounted since simple holdings like partner having 4 to the Queen Jack, King Jack, or Ace Jack, may easily result in the 10 eventually taking a trick. Even against a suit contract the lead of low from a holding of three to the nine can result in the nine being of some value, so and because of that, not to mention the enabling of partner to be able to make a distributional count of his hand to you while defending, all lead to make every effort to preserve the value of an intermediate card which becomes promoted during the play. The experience gleaned while actually playing the game will eventually be of great value and will be the best way to glide into a better understanding of the value of intermediates.

I’ll leave you with the following example which is worth quite a few words:

Consider holding the Jack deuce, with partner holding the K543. and the opponents having Q76 over the Jack and the A1098 over the queen.

Result for you should be no tricks in that suit (unless their side leads the suit, then one). However if partner’s holding is K1098 instead of K543 and the opponents have the same holding in the same hands except that the A1098 are now the A543, your side, even though leading them will take 3 full tricks instead of zero.

To further emphasize this holding there is not one high card point difference in your holdings in both instances and yet you take 3 additional tricks with the 2nd example.

GO FISH!

Good luck!