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An old chestnut?

What you see…or what you hope partner has!

Another opening lead problem from the North Island Pairs. It covers familiar territory though few East players got it right at the table….or at least completely right.

 

 

1NT is 15-17. We are playing Pairs.

We all know that there could be a weakness in a major suit with this direct sequence to game though that need not always be true. After all, opener can hold both majors and responder can still have a weakness in one minor…and that can be in the minor the player on lead holds.

Adding to the complicated equation is that responder can especially at Pairs but really at any form of the game have a 4333 shape with a 4 card major. No wonder we all hate the decision of opening leads. They can backfire as they did for those who led from their longest and strongest here.

Another reason to look to a major for an opening lead is the lack of any entry back should declarer have only one hold in the suit and cuts communications by holding up one or two rounds.

Where Pairs and Teams differs with respect to opening leads seems to be in one’s aim. In Teams, we want to beat the contract but in Pairs, if we can restrict those overtricks, then we can often record a great score, as here.

Unless opener started with a 5-card spade suit (always possible), East knows their partner must have at least 4 spades, often more. Not just that, East’s own lack of high card points confirms their partner has a few, maybe more! So, if you want to strike “gold dust” with your opening lead, go for a spade. It may backfire as here (though no worse than leading a club) but it may well be the lead that on another day beats the contract.

However, the heart lead seems to combine the option of leading a major along with not being so bad when it is wrong. So perhaps playing Pairs, that might be the better major to lead…and so it was!

 

 

North would not only hold up a couple of rounds after 9 lead but would be very relieved that the club finesse worked. Even then, they can only take 4 tricks in each minor and the major suit aces. On a spade lead, North has the luxury of playing on clubs and then setting up 3 spade tricks, 12 tricks in all. The same applies after an initial club lead.

Of the 1NT-3NT or similar auctions, a club was led 7 times and a spade 4 times. It seems the city of Christchurch took this “hand to heart” as Jane Morris, Jenny Wilkinson and Neil Hawkins all led a heart, along with Alice Young. The spade leaders were unlucky, the club leaders perhaps less so.

Richard Solomon

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