All News

For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players…. And others. It’s Fri   day.

Keeping partner happy.

What to lead? That usually seems to be a problem! So, you are defending 1NT and your partner overcalled a suit and you are on lead. Sounds like it is “problem solved”. Lead partner’s suit and all will be well, at least as justifying your lead in the post mortem!

What do you then think here?

 

Leading partner’s suit is often a great idea, not so much to keep partner happy but because it is often the best lead for your side to win tricks. However, that is not always true.

The declarer should have a hold in your partner’s suit or else they should not have bid no trumps. In itself, that is still not a reason to make an alternative lead. However, while declarer will have a hold in your partner’s suit, it does not mean that they have a hold in every suit.

Where the player on lead has an unbid suit, they should certainly consider leading their own suit rather than partner’s. It is usual though not mandatory to have an outside entry as well so that you can regain the lead if you lose a trick in the suit. “Usual” does not mean “always”.

Look at West’s club suit. It would be really good if we could run five or even six club tricks. There is no reason why North or South should have a club stop. So, rather than try a spade, there is a good reason to lead a club…and apologize to partner if a spade lead had worked out better!

and which club?

The next question is which club should you lead? Where you are leading a long suit and have no outside entry, it is almost always better to lead a small card rather than an honour. If you lose the lead because declarer or dummy has Q, you hope your partner has a second club so that you can make 5 tricks in the suit.

There is a counter argument in that if you led a top club and it turned out to be a bad lead, then you could still switch to a spade. However, on balance, if your aim is to make lots of club tricks, you should lead a low one: let’s say 4^th highest 7.

So, that’s our choice here and you will be glad to know that the result should be the same whichever club you led.

 

Whether playing Pairs or Teams, West did very well in passing out 1NT. Both 2 and 3 were makeable contracts but beating 1NT worked out much more straightforward and profitable.

If South had held 3 clubs headed by the J, the lead of a high club would have been disastrous for the defence. Whenever, East had 2 clubs, it was much better for West to lead a low club, especially if North or South held Q. This time, a high club is fine because West has 10 and the QJ fall under the AK. That is an anti-percentage position.

The low club is much better in the long run. Here East plays J and then plays Q. West needs to be alert in case East has no more clubs. West must remember to overtake East’s second club as they hold 10. The defence will then take 6 club tricks.

South must find 3 discards, say one card in each of the other suits.  East will discard 2 spades, a heart and a diamond. Finally at trick 7, West leads 9. South wins in dummy and plays 2 high hearts. Inevitably, one heart would be thrown from dummy.

South cashes their high hearts and may try the diamond finesse which would allow East to cash 2 spade winners. That gives the defence 9 tricks….down 3 or + 300 to East West, a great result for the defenders. If East kept one more heart, they would win K, Q and K, the same result.

So, the answer is you will keep partner happy if you did not lead their suit and had a good reason for not doing so. They would be even happier if that lead worked out as well for the defence as here.

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items