Opening Leads 27
This one caused a lot of controversy when I put it to my panel of club players. The deal occurred at X-Clubs on 1-April. It was a quite competitive deal, where good and bad scores were evident across the board, and where the choice of opening lead made a big difference.
Board 9 from X-Clubs 1-04-2025
Dealer N EW Vul
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A63
4
AJ75432
K7When North opened 1D and South responded 1S, some Wests stayed quiet and some bravely tried to compete and bid 2H. Over 2H, North bid 3D and East bid 3H. After two passes, North persisted with 4D. That was where most NS pairs played, and almost every East led the ace of hearts. But at one table, when East bid 3H, South made an ‘optional’ double and that was the significant feature of the problem as I set it. After South doubled 3H, North did not accept the invitation for a penalty and continued with diamonds. The opening lead problem was now with East. Most Easts would simply lay down their heart ace and blame their partner for the 2H bid on such a poor suit. I don’t personally agree with the 2H bid at vul vs not, and do see the value of an optional double in such a sequence, because +100 can turn out to score about 20% whereas +200 for down one doubled will usually score over 80%. But such bidding is for the experts, and for the lesser experienced, can give a clue to what the best defence is.
Given that dummy should be expected to have something like South in fact did have, the ace of hearts lead can be a disaster, as indeed it was when it was made, in some cases against 5D. East, instead of blaming partner, should have taken note of South’s bidding and chosen a black suit lead. But which one? The problem with the lowest in either suit is that partner will expect the king rather than the queen, and may return the suit to no avail. Not one East chose a low spade, which I believe is a better option to the lowest club, because it attacks dummy’s strength and that strength is also likely to be with West, admittedly an inference from West’s 2H bid coupled with South’s optional double. And West will have a better idea of East’s hand because dummy will go down with four spades.
South’s optional double was, this time, optimistic, but would nevertheless have yielded over 80% on the board, but then again so would East’s opening lead for their side, had it been based on an accurate assessment of the bidding.
