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Trusting Your Opponent.

That may seem a risky thing to do but it can sometimes be quite a good idea! With that in mind, what would be your opening lead here?

 

 

3 is a 1 round force showing 4 card spade support and a singleton or void club.
What is your opening lead?

There is  choice of 3 suits, all possibilities. You could lead a trump perhaps to cut down on cross-ruffing. You could lead a club hoping partner might win and choose to return a heart, though a diamond would be fine as well. Finally, there is leading the A and going from there, depending on what dummy looks like.

A trump lead has something going for it especially if declarer needs to give up a diamond and you can continue with a second trump. I would rate that lead as the second best choice.

There are two problems with a club lead. In leading a club, you are rather expecting South to have blasted to slam with losers in both minor suits (unless they are void in diamonds). That does seem to make 6 a rather foolhardy bid. Here comes our first opportunity to trust our opponent. If they off two quick losers, then it is much more likely they are missing the top two diamonds than having a club loser as well as one in diamonds.

The other problem with a club lead is that you are saying you can beat the slam by 2 tricks…a club, a heart ruff (hopefully) and then A. Always try to beat a slam by one trick. If it goes two down, that is a bonus! Thus, put your clubs to one side.

When you lead A, you will see a rather disturbing dummy:

 

There’s nothing else to do but to continue diamonds.. and you will be glad you did!

 

Did North false-card with9 or 10 to try to put you off the scent?

Yes, partner returned a heart. Down 2! Wonderful. A bonus!

You really had to trust South to have first round control of clubs. Had you done that, you would have been recording +200 instead of -1430.

Before we leave 6 as the final contract, there is a little word of warning for the declarers who escaped the A lead. There were several lucky mainly North declarers. You ruffed the opening club lead and then played two rounds of trumps. If you then ruffed your second club, thinking you could return to hand with a heart to the J, draw trump and claim 12 tricks, (well..hearts are never 6-1, are they not?), you would have got your just desserts..down 1! Yes, it happened. Ouch. Unlucky but deserved. Why not draw the last trump, play 3 rounds of hearts and then claim?

It seems so straightforward but in the heat of the moment, we sometimes relax at the time when we should be most switched on to the slightest danger.

Club Contracts

At 4 tables, East got to play in clubs. The pair in 5x had no problem making 11 tricks. The pair in 7x had no chance. The two pairs in 6 both made their contract though in neither case did the defence do the right thing.

In order to make 6, East needs to ruff 5 cards in dummy. Thus, the defence has to lead a trump at some point, that point when declarer loses a spade. North should not let their partner win that spade trick on the basis that either they may not know what to lead next or maybe are unable to find the right switch as is the case here.

So, how can East stop North gaining the lead to play a round of trumps? At one table, South led A and East ruffed in hand to play A and a second diamond, ruffed. Next came another heart ruff and another low diamond from East on which South played Q.

Yes, that’s right. East has to hope that South did not initially lead a trump because they did not have one! Another case of “trusting one’s opponent”. Throw West’s spade on the Q (or even more certainly on the next round when South plays K) and the slam cannot be beaten!

Now, if as South, you are good enough to play J under the A playing your partner for the 10 anticipating that you need your partner to win a trick to lead a trump, please contact our international chef de mission, Jonathan Westoby, immediately. We need you in one of our international teams in Denmark later this year.  

The same defence has slightly more chance of happening if as against 6x, South led K but only slightly!

The moral of this story is to recognise one’s opponent’s jump to the spade slam has virtually certainly guaranteed first round club control and then hopefully finding an alternative approach. The heart void was an unfortunate “red herring”! At least, it meant there were only two wrong suits to lead as opposed to three!

Richard Solomon

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