Leads All-Important
Today, I am breaking with tradition and reviewing a deal from other than Wednesday play. I am doing so because I have noticed some very poor defence in every session of play, as well as some atrocious opening leads, particularly in the less experienced grades. I do hope this review from recent teams play will give the reader some insight into the necessity of having a good understanding of defence, which always begins with the opening lead. If you make the wrong lead, or a lead that your partner cannot understand, it is impossible to achieve the proper results.
Board 11 Dealer S All Vul
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KJT3
7
KQ97
A432South opened a weak 1NT. North, looking for a spade fit, bid Stayman and South showed the heart suit. That was only of passing interest to North, who bid 3NT. What should West lead? What would YOU lead?
With a holding in a suit like West has, there are a number of options that have been used by different partnerships. It is normally a good idea to lead your strongest suit against a No Trump contract. That is clearly the heart suit. There are different methods that people use, so let's have a look at them:
- The lead of an ACE generally asks for 'attitude'. Partner will SIGNAL and tell you whether they like your lead or not.
- The lead of the KING, as some of the more expert players play it, asks for partner to UNBLOCK their highest card, or give a COUNT in the suit.
- The lead of 'fourth highest' is also a common lead, But would you do that with the West hand? That would no doubt confuse partner. Unless, of course, you also have an agreed method with partner, and that is, that the lead of a TEN shows an “Interior Sequence”.
Given all those options, which would be YOUR choice? Or would you not lead a heart at all and wait until partner can lead a heart through declarer? Let me answer this question first. If you took note of the bidding, you will have a pretty good idea of declarer's hand, which will include exactly four hearts. They will be odds on to include the queen. Not leading a heart at all would be hoping that partner has not just one entry but TWO, because a heart will need to be led through declarer twice in order to finesse against declarer's queen. That is unlikely to happen. So, it really must be a heart lead: “lose one trick to set up four” seems to be a very good idea, don't you think?
Your side does need five tricks to beat 3NT so what better option than the heart suit is there? Should you lose that one trick immediately by leading the ten or jack, or can you afford to take your king or ace first and then decide? The problem with starting with your ace of king is that, while you may get some idea of partner's holding, partner may still need to get in twice, and you may lose the COMMUNICATION with partner if partner has only two hearts, as is quite likely.
Let's take another look at the deal and see what would have happened when it was played.
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If you decided to lead the ace or king of hearts and got the message from partner, you could still recover if you worked out that partner had three hearts. You could continue with the JACK and give the trick away to declarer's queen. Then, when partner won a trick later (that would surely be the ace of spades) the third heart through declarer would defeat the 3NT contract. Lucky, but at least you saw the need for losing the second trick. If you simply cashed the second heart and hoped partner's queen dropped, you were giving declarer the contract on a plate, since there was no entry to your good hearts any more.
If you started with the ten or jack of hearts (depending on your agreement) and gave the first trick away, you would have certainly defeated the 3NT contact. Even if declarer ducked, a second low heart would defeat him, so the only play for declarer would be to win the queen and play on the minor suits, trying for eight more tricks there. Thanks to partner's four diamonds to the jack, declarer would have had only three diamond tricks, four clubs, and the first heart trick.
Some things are foolproof in the game of bridge, most things aren't. Even my preferred option of starting with the jack or ten of hearts wouldn't be foolproof. Why? Because of the extremely unlikely possibility of East having a singleton queen of hearts. But do have a think about opening leads and reasons for them, and agree a workable system of defence with your partner. Thinking ahead often helps as does working out the possibilities after you see dummy. For instance, when you see dummy in the given deal, you can be near certain that East has three hearts and declarer four.
My new book “Tips and Quips” is now available. Order direct from me ($30 including postage) by emailing me at villyn@xtra.co.nz
