Q&A Test Answers 01
This one is an exercise in lateral thinking. It comes from many years ago and may not be replicated
these days, because bidding methods may well be different. Nevertheless it provides many points of
interest.
1.You are playing teams. You are SOUTH, EW vulnerable, dealer West.
The Bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1 | Pass | 1 |
| Pass | 2 | Pass | 2NT |
| Pass | 3 | Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 3NT | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
You ask about the bidding, as you should, and are told that the bidding is natural, 2S shows 5+
diamonds and 4 spades, and is game forcing. 2NT shows ‘not much’, and nothing has been ‘discussed’
as far as further bidding goes.
Your hand is:
| 853 |
| KQJ92 |
| 32 |
 974 |
What would your opening lead be?
Teams play is quite different to your normal match point play. I would liken it to a cricket test match,
whereas match points can be likened to a 20/20 game. Not everyone will agree but when I first learnt to
play, and started playing teams, the most important thing in my psyche was, when defending against
any contract, but in particular at game level or higher, was to defeat the contract if at all possible, and
therefore the opening lead plays such a crucial part. Soon enough, we learnt guidelines like ‘fourth
highest of longest and strongest’, ‘top card of a strong sequence’, ‘the unbid suit’, ‘higher card of a
doubleton’, ‘lead partner’s suit’, ‘don’t lead singleton trumps’ and of course there were obvious
opening leads like the ace when you hold the king as well, a singleton or higher of a doubleton when
you’re hoping for a ruff. Then, as time went on I found that all these ‘rules’ counted for nothing and
the best rule was “think before you leap and act when you have analysed what might happen and you
have formed a plan of attack”. Sometimes, especially in a match point session, this is not possible
because a full analysis may find you being called to move before you have pulled out your first card!
But try and get into the habit, and your thinking will not be required as often, nor take as long.
There is no such thing as the ‘correct’ lead, as you will find out sooner or later. When asked “what are
your leads” by an opponent, one of my regular partners used to reply: “Good ones”. Very flattering but
worth remembering.
Now let’s look at our first problem with all that in mind.
Are you seriously going to try and defeat 3NT? Ask yourself if that is possible given the bidding.
Surely the answer would be: “highly unlikely”. But the next question would be: “if we are to defeat
3NT where would our tricks come from?” and the answer would surely be “the heart suit”. Then, the
next question: “what can partner contribute” and the answer is the ace of hearts. Given the bidding, is
that possible? Well, possible but highly unlikely since declarer has shown a five card heart suit. Yes,
East was forced to bid and may only have five hearts to the ten and partner could in fact have Ax and
dummy a singleton heart. The “obvious” lead, if it is to be a heart, is the king: from such a solid
sequence you would need to have your head read to lead ‘fourth highest’. With that I agree, but
consider this: if you lead the king, even if partner has the ace, the suit will be blocked. Yes, you will be
able to take three more heart tricks if partner overtakes and leads one back, or only two if partner does
not overtake. So the only lead that makes sense, if you are going to lead your best suit, is the TWO of
hearts. That may sound crazy, but is it? If partner has the ten, you have lost nothing, if partner has the
ace you have struck the jackpot, and if partner has neither, you have given away one extra trick. Not
one of my solvers were ‘crazy’ enough to suggest leading the two of hearts, but I did. And partner had
neither the ace nor the ten! But why worry about the overtricks in a teams match.
But wait, there’s more, when I reveal what happened next when I led the heart two. Something that I
hadn’t expected or anticipated. Here it is!
Dealer W EW Vul
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The inevitable now happened, declarer winning the singleton ace in dummy, cashing two spades in
hand, and taking the diamond finesse by running the nine. North won the king, and having nothing
better to do, ‘returned partner’s lead’, and everyone was shocked when I took four more tricks. In this
case declarer did not have nine tricks without taking the diamond finesse but sometimes the lead of the
lowest card of five instead of fourth highest can mislead declarer enough to think a finesse is safe when
it isn’t. Would I make the same lead in the same situation in a match point session? Who knows.
