Thursday Review Introduction
In my final Wednesday Review I set an opening lead problem. That is the sort of thing that I will be concentrating on in all my Thursday Reviews.
Whereas the Wednesday reviews were mainly about basic bidding and only a modicum relating to declarer play and defence, the Thursday reviews will be much more about declarer play and defence.
Bridge is not all about following a set rules like 'draw trumps', 'learn how to finesse', 'third hand high', 'lead fourth highest of longest and strongest' . The same can apply to bidding situations, which will also feature but not to the same extent, only when it will help to get to the best contract or to assist with your defence. The real, complete, game of bridge should also be about LATERAL THINKING and seeing all the hands at the table WITHOUT prior knowledge or peeking round corners or illicit signals to partner.
I will be following through with some 'tricks' during the Thursday reviews and the ultimate result will be my series entitled “Thirteen tricks” which as I said in my Final Wednesday review will be available only via email and to PARTNERSHIPS who want to seriously get the best results possible through lateral thinking and, in effect, seeing through the cards.
Let me now return to the opening lead problem I set you in the final Wednesday review. You are SOUTH and this has been the bidding:
Dealer W NS VUL
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1 | - | 1 |
| - | 1 | - | 2 1 |
| - | 3 | - | 3NT |
- 4th suit forcing
You hold the following hand as South: what will YOU lead?
| KJ3 |
| KT54 |
| QJT2 |
| A5 |
To most of us, the absolutely obvious opening lead is the queen of diamonds. You have been taught to lead 'fourth highest' but also NOT fourth highest when you have a solid sequence of three top cards. Yes, the queen of diamonds is the obvious card to lead...... IF you lead a diamond. But ask yourself about all the hands at the table. Can you visualise them, and can you visualise how declarer will play the contract? The first thing you should do is to decide which SUIT you should lead and not which card in the suit. Does the bidding not tell you that declarer will be trying to make use of the CLUB suit in 3NT? Certainly that is the case, for sure, you have cards in the red suits to suggest that the ONLY really useful suit to declarer will be clubs.
The bidding should tell you that dummy will probably have something like six clubs to the KQJ and four spades. Declarer will most likely have both the ace and king of diamonds whatever the 'fourth suit forcing' means. Think about the points and where they are. Having decided that the declarer play will revolve around a) setting up the clubs (your ace will need to be removed) you will realise that if declarer has only two, you will be able to duck once. Then, declarer will have to find an entry to dummy to make use of the clubs. Where is that entry going to be? The most likely entry must surely be in spades, being dummy's second suit. If it is in hearts or diamonds, there is nothing that can be done. But if it is in spades, you certainly can try to do something about it.
Kill that spade entry immediately if possible. Lead the KING OF SPADES. That will work any time that declarer has only two clubs (very likely) or Qx of spades or a singleton spade queen. If dummy has both ace and queen of spades then you can't stop the entry. If, and this if is highly unlikely, declarer has Ax of spades and dummy Qxxx then you have committed hara kiri. But only if that is the precise layout, and counting points and listening to the bidding makes that scenario highly unlikely: West must have about 11-13 high card points, East must have most of the points in the red suits and you know partner has a jack at most if the bidding is to be believed.
If you would like to receive the “Thursday Reviews” direct from me when they are written, then please let me know by email, to villyn@xtra.co.nz
And if you would like to know about “Thirteeen Tricks” send me an email indicating your interest and I will send you more information about it.
With many best wishes for better bridge and better results in 2018.
Vil Gravis
