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Leon and the Lead.

We return to the Kiwis’ recent exploits in Jakarta. Put yourself in Leon Meier’s shoes as East and come up with the winning lead against this 3NT contract:

 

Well, you may not have felt inclined to make a Weak Jump Overcall but you did (the vulnerability is in your favour )and seemed to have survived in that you were not penalised nor received a potentially dangerous pre-emptive raise from partner, never quite a welcome development when your bid was a stretch. 
Are you still trying to find the suit you bid at the 2-level? Your longest by a little!

So?

It would seem you have just about convinced yourself that a heart lead is not going to get you far and a club lead seems to have little to commend itself, no matter how short North’s opening could be. So, the choice is narrowing!

Leon chose 9 and his partner did not mind that choice!

 

Michael Ware (West), with no outside entry, ducked the opening lead in case both Leon and North had doubleton spades. Then came the top two clubs on which Michael played “high low”, not count but a Smith Echo saying he really liked his partner’s opening lead. He may have said that by the 2 at trick 1 but this reinforced the situation that the lead was a potentially very good one for the defence. While one must be careful of situations where giving count takes precedence, the unusual “high low” action as declarer plays their own suit is a good way of telling partner that their opening lead is good. Such information is not always available as here with a very low card at trick 1. (Some pairs choose to play the other way round where low says like. This is more dangerous were one partner forget or not look too closely.)

 
The smile that says "I like your lead"! 

North played 3 more rounds of clubs with Leon having small heart cards to spare. Michael tried to muddy the waters by encouraging diamonds, though declarer’s best chance of 9 tricks was collecting three in diamonds. A and a diamond to the jack enabled the defence to take the last 6 tricks and beat the contract by two tricks.

Meanwhile, at the other table, Malcolm Mayer avoided the spade lead and while slightly nervous about the spade position (split honours would likely to prove declarer’s downfall), was able to knock out A and come to 10 tricks and gain 13 imps for New Zealand.

Opening leads, as we all know, can be so crucial. Here, leading through dummy’s supposed four-card suit, was the winner.

Richard Solomon

 

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