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“Tightly Knitted”.

Two deals today with but one theme but before we disclose that to you, we will give you two lead problems. Both these deals occurred in recent weeks in Pairs’ events.

 

5 shows 1 ace.

Or try this one:

 

3 is a Weak Jump overcall…and some!

I think the lead on one of these deals could be found while the other is just a bit harder. Naturally, when slams are involved and both slams can be beaten, the opening leads are quite critical.

The down-side of light openings… but for whom?

The particular “downside” did occur on the first deal though it did not occur for the declaring side! Spare a thought for North on the first deal who did expect a high-card or two extra for their partner’s opening bid:

 

Had South’s ace been the A, then 6NT might have been a reasonable shot with 7 cashing diamond tricks, two major aces and some tricks in partner’s opening suit. K protected an immediate attack on that suit too.

I also opened the South hand 1 (it does comply with the “Rule of 20” for opening bids) though a slower auction enabled us to bail out at the game level.

If one was looking for a passive lead against 6NT, and passive leads are usually best against that contract, then one is hard to find from that East hand. As you can see, there are two passive suits tolead and one attacking one which would score you the same -1470. Any takers for leading your ace, in a suit bid by dummy? At Pairs, even scoring one trick against a making 6NT might be worth doing. In doing so, you would feel sick at seeing dummy’s hearts (fearing the worst like declarer having Kx!) However, your partner amazingly finds an encouraging heart to play and the defence should have in quick succession the first three tricks. That was not the end table result!

Discounting other suits

Well, there’s only 4 suits from which to choose but the bidding sounds so wild that it would seem most players around the table might only have three! Remember:

 

Your partner must have a rather unusual weak jump in that they dived at the 6-level: well, you presume it was a “dive”? If you think your side is going to score a club trick after the above auction, dream on! In fact, a big danger of leading a club might be an immediate ruff and discard! Surely, you should be looking elsewhere?

A trump might be correct but leading a singleton trump is fraught with danger though if your side has all of the clubs, then declarer and dummy might have just about all the rest of the spades. However, you might be choosing between red suits. North opened one and your partner could have used the famous often fraught “Lightner Double” for dummy’s first bid suit. No guarantees but is “no double” that why you should lead the other?

 

West’s A did not score and South soon had all 13 tricks. Again, not conclusive but the unbid suit was this time the winner. AQ “tight” on both deals and each time a heart lead would have been worth lots of match-points.

Such defensive problems are one good reason why we would so often prefer to await the opening lead as declarer rather than have to find one ourselves.

Misfits!

 

 

What are the chances our partner has 10 or 11 black suit cards? How are you feeling? Are you going to bid now?

If you pass, North doubles and East and South pass…and you?

Richard Solomon

 

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