Thursday Review Bonus
This one is worth documenting for a number of reasons. I hope it will be of interest to all readers, not just those who played on Friday afternoon.
Board 5 from Friday 02/02/2018
Dealer N NS Vul
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K7
JT4
KQT983
93At our table, North passed because we weren't playing weak twos, East opened 1S and, no, I did not overcall 2C but passed, since a vulnerable overcall would have been quite gross in my view. West bid what the hand was worth: 4S. That was the end of the auction and I had to make the opening lead. I have been very firm in my advice that leading unsupported aces is to be avoided. Or underleading aces. And I do not like leads from three small, whether top of nothing or “MUD”. As for the singleton queen of trumps, ugh. There was really only one option and I led the ace of clubs.
When I saw dummy and my ace held, there was really only one continuation being another club but declarer ruffed and proceeded to make five. Nothing of any consequence you might say, despite the unadvised lead of the ace of clubs. Sometimes one has to follow the “do as I do not as I say” principle. I have noted that just about everyone in this grade will lead off their aces at the drop of a hat, but quite unbelievably, there was only one other South who led the ace of clubs. Others led a heart, some the ace of diamonds (possibly because North had opened a weak 2D), some even the queen of spades! I would think that if North did open a weak 2D, the ace of clubs lead would be a reasonable lead because of the possibility of a club ruff. But be that as it may, I anticipated that by leading the ace of clubs, I would have scored about 80% on the board because it was clear that on any other lead declarer would have made SIX!
On checking the hand records after the session, I confirmed that that was indeed the case. But on checking the results, I found that only TWO Easts had made six given a lead that was NOT the ace of clubs. As you should be able to see, by following basic principles of declarer play, 6S is stone cold on any lead BUT the ace of clubs. What do I mean by 'basic declarer play'?
- Win opening lead
- Draw any trumps that you need to
- Leave out any top trumps with opponents
- Play on your winners
- Discard any potential losers.
Thus, take spade ace, play on HEARTS and discard losing CLUB on fourth heart, ruff losing diamonds and let North make the king of trumps whenever they want it, that is all North can make.
