Tricky Answers (04)
1. Teams
Dealer E All Vul
 9873 |
 A972 |
 3 |
 QT74 |
The bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | 1 |
| Pass | 1 | Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 2 | Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 3 | Pass | 4 |
| Pass | 4 | Pass | 5 |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
Your lead?
Good to get a near unanimous verdict here. Even I, despite my abhorrence of singleton trump leads, would lead my singleton diamond, trying to protect what club tricks I have, since they are in danger of getting ruffed in dummy, which will almost certainly have three diamonds and a singleton club, as in fact was the case.
2. Match Points
Dealer W Nil Vul
| K94 |
| AT52 |
| KT8 |
| J63 |
The bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1 | Pass | 1 |
| Pass | 1 | Pass | 3NT |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
Your lead?
This time a really tricky one. Gerry once more comes to the fore: “A spade looks right. Maybe the NINE.” Yes, the bidding suggests that our best chance lies in the spade suit. Typical bidding when East has the points for 3NT but nothing in spades. As it happened, when this came up recently, there was still time to recover after a heart lead but very tricky. If South started with the NINE of spades, there were five tricks on the go for the defence. Why the nine? It gives us the best chance of picking up an unlikely five tricks in spades on the go, because we can lead spades through West (dummy) twice when declarer has any singleton lower than the nine. Bob would lead the king to allow for a singleton queen, jack, or ten, but what of the possibility of egg on face if declarer has a singleton ACE? If you do choose the S9 just hope for an intelligent partner who will be able to read your lead!
3. Match Points
Dlr N NS Vul
| Q932 |
| K42 |
| 974 |
| AQ7 |
The bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1 | Pass | 1 |
| Pass | 1 | Pass | 1NT |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
Your lead?
As a few guessed, my favourite lead worked once more. The ace of clubs! The addition of ace from AQx (against NT) is an absolute must for any defensive partnership, why not add it to yours? I note that some ‘experts’ actually have added it to their repertoire.
4. Dealer E Nil Vul Teams
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East opens 1H. You bid 3C, playing “Intermediate jump overcalls” but nobody bothers to ask and West bids 3D. Pass from North, 3H from East and 4H from West, all pass. You start with the CK, get count from partner and continue with CA. What is your next move?
This one returned another overwhelming vote, for the diamond queen, the reason being that it is probably the only way to cut the diamond suit off from declarer. It does have some risk attached to it, like if declarer has a diamond VOID, but it does look like the best hope of defeating 4H. For a totally different reason, two of our panelists shifted to the diamond, hoping partner had the ace of trumps and a doubleton diamond. Great move, but I think for the wrong reasons, but as it happened, correct. 5D was also down one when North had three diamonds to the ten and a third club was enough to allow the ten to score while presenting declarer with a ruff and discard!
If you have any tricky questions, do please send them in, I can’t hope to find them all.
