Following on from our deal from Wednesday 24/07/24 at X-Clubs
Board 3
Dealer South EW Vul
This produced some interesting results across X-Clubs. Also from my panel of club players. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that opening leads against slams are worse than opening leads against games and part scores. My guess is that this is because so many players are entrenched in their leading habits against lower level contracts, where the usual ‘fourth highest’ or ‘top of touching honours’ is the norm. But as I explained in Chapter 21, the approach has to be quite different against any slam. Let’s look at what could happen with the wrong lead against the two possible slams.
Firstly, 6NT played by West. It should be clear to North that safety is the paramount consideration. South will have little of consequence so North must hope to lose nothing from the opening lead and hope declarer can not find the twelve tricks needed. Leading a low club should be the least attractive choice because it is almost certain to give the first trick to declarer unless South has the queen, and that club trick could be the extra one declarer needs. Is there a safer lead? How about a spade? Clearly, the three (fourth highest) is not recommended as it could give a trick away to the ten, as indeed it does in the given layout. How about the queen? With the nine providing some insurance, it is a good lead, but what if dummy has A10x or K10x? The lead of the queen now allows declarer to later finesse against the jack, if needed. A heart, then? That might just result in declarer finding the queen, if that is missing, and partner won’t be pleased if she holds Qxx. A low diamond makes more sense, because you have three of them, one more than in hearts, and that increases the chances that whatever partner has in diamonds will fall to declarer anyway. All things considered, I would lead a diamond rather than the spade queen, because dummy is the strong hand. But, as is often the case, Deep Finesse will tell you that it matters not what you lead, 6NT will make anyway? Will it? Not if declarer plays a better game than Deep Finesse. You see, a good declarer will take the most sensible line of leading a low club from dummy towards the queen, which will then take a trick fifty percent of the time. Deep Finesse, being able to see every card, will make of course, and justify those of us who would make a terrible lead, e.g. a low club, which gives the contract to declarer immediately, since letting the lead run to the queen will ensure the contract. The 6H slam, played by East, can also be made by Deep Finesse, but could also be made by a competent declarer. Think about that before you read Chapter 23.
QJ93
54
863
KT75