You're looking to find Partner's J; though possibly a Q, and possibly a measly T. So what you are looking at is most likely all prospects for the defense, and you're endplayed at opening lead; except Declarer doesn't know that yet. No way I'm leading a Diamond to set up closed hand's (likely 5 card) Diamond Suit; Partner has no entry to Hearts even if they set up; and my Spades are all on side. So yes, I'm definitely leading a Club on this auction.

Which one is harder to judge; but since I dread seeing the 9 come down in Dummy the Club 8 is hitting the table in tempo.

There being no safe suit to lead on this hand, I don't see any reason to distinguish between Pairs and Team play in this case. I'm just hoping to pull a fast one on Declarer quickly before he learns anything about our hands.

The above is premised on a Yellow Card-ish bidding system with 2D being 2-over-1 Forcing and 3C showing either length or strength in the suit but likely not both. I expect 5-3-2-3 or 5-2-2-4 distribution to come down in Dummy ad Declarer to have something like 2-3-5-3.

You're looking to find Partner's J; though possibly a Q, and possibly a measly T. So what you are looking at is most likely all prospects for the defense, and you're endplayed at opening lead; except Declarer doesn't know that yet. No way I'm leading a Diamond to set up closed hand's (likely 5 card) Diamond Suit; Partner has no entry to Hearts even if they set up; and my Spades are all on side. So yes, I'm definitely leading a Club on this auction.

Which one is harder to judge; but since I dread seeing the 9 come down in Dummy the Club 8 is hitting the table in tempo. Play to Trick 1 may be the only meaningful decision Partner has on this hand, so I want to make that as easy as possible to get right.

There being no safe suit to lead on this hand, I don't see any reason to distinguish between Pairs and Team play in this case. I'm just hoping to pull a fast one on Declarer quickly before he learns anything about our hands.

The above is premised on a Yellow Card-ish bidding system with 2D being 2-over-1 Forcing and 3C showing either length or strength in the suit but likely not both. I expect 5-3-2-3 or 5-2-2-4 distribution to come down in Dummy and Declarer to have something like 2-3-5-3.

You're looking to find Partner's J; though possibly a Q, and possibly a measly T. So what you are looking at is most likely all prospects for the defense, and you're endplayed at opening lead; except Declarer doesn't know that yet. No way I'm leading a Diamond to set up closed hand's (likely 5 card) Diamond Suit; Partner has no entry to Hearts even if they set up; and my Spades are all on side. So yes, I'm definitely leading a Club on this auction.

Which one is harder to judge; but since I dread seeing the 9 come down in Dummy the Club 8 is hitting the table in tempo.

There being no safe suit to lead on this hand, I don't see any reason to distinguish between Pairs and Team play in this case. I'm just hoping to pull a fast one on Declarer quickly before he learns anything about our hands.

You're looking to find Partner's J; though possibly a Q, and possibly a measly T. So what you are looking at is most likely all prospects for the defense, and you're endplayed at opening lead; except Declarer doesn't know that yet. No way I'm leading a Diamond to set up closed hand's (likely 5 card) Diamond Suit; Partner has no entry to Hearts even if they set up; and my Spades are all on side. So yes, I'm definitely leading a Club on this auction.

Which one is harder to judge; but since I dread seeing the 9 come down in Dummy the Club 8 is hitting the table in tempo.

There being no safe suit to lead on this hand, I don't see any reason to distinguish between Pairs and Team play in this case. I'm just hoping to pull a fast one on Declarer quickly before he learns anything about our hands.

The above is premised on a Yellow Card-ish bidding system with 2D being 2-over-1 Forcing and 3C showing either length or strength in the suit but likely not both. I expect 5-3-2-3 or 5-2-2-4 distribution to come down in Dummy ad Declarer to have something like 2-3-5-3.