Opening Leads 30
Some well thought out opening leads can have unintended consequences. This could have been one such time, but unfortunately not a single EW pair were in what I would have thought would be the best contract if bid properly, so the opening lead was not as potentially productive as it might have been. But let’s see how things might have turned out if EW had reached what I consider the best contract, and South also made what I would rate the best opening lead, despite my constant admonitions to never lead an unsupported ace. Let’s look at the deal from X-Clubs on Tuesday 15/04/2025.
Board 13. Dealer N All Vul
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Q7
J
KT2
KJ97543I can’t imagine North not opening this with a 3C preempt. East has a perfectly reasonable takeout double and West should value the hand as strong enough for game, and can ask East to name the trump suit by making a fairly commonly used and understood cue bid of 4C. But now, think about how East should react then? East can bid 4H, but wait a minute! West should also have four spades to have made that cue bid. And it should be common knowledge by most advanced players that a 4-4 fit in trumps coupled with a 5-4 fit in a second suit can produce an extra trick. So, East should bid 4S and not 4H.
Unfortunately, there was no East in 4S across the whole of X-Clubs, so the opening lead and play remains hypothetical. The reader will note that against 4H, be it by East or West, a club lead will result in declarer making four or five, depending on guessing the spade position. But look what happens on a club lead against FOUR SPADES. Declarer will, with competent play, make SIX, because declarer will ruff two clubs in hand, using the trump king in dummy as one entry, and then North’s queen will fall under the ace, and dummy’s heart queen will be the entry to draw South’s last trump. No chance of making six in hearts.
I posed this as an opening lead problem given the bidding was as I suggested. I believe that the bidding suggests that the best chance is a second round diamond ruff, and by leading the ace of diamonds you can achieve three things: 1. See dummy; 2. Get a diamond card from partner that could be a singleton; 3. allow you to switch to a club if necessary. As it happens, after the opening ace of diamonds lead and seeing dummy, a diamond continuation is a no-brainer.
There is a time and a place for everything, including good opening leads, even if your tutor says they are bad leads!
