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For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players…and others. It’s Fri day.

Urgent Action Required!

Something unusual happened on the following board. Your side bid up to game and obviously had enough high card points to do so…25 ish. Yet, one of your opponents just kept on bidding. You decided you had the right cards to double them for penalties and thus found yourself on lead.

 

Your 1NT showed 15-17 hcp. 2 was Stayman looking for a fit in a major suit. Yet, it was South who bid spades. You had nothing to say at that point but your partner bid 3NT, obviously with a hold in spades and at least 10 hcp. Yet, South kept on bidding. You doubled for penalties and 4x became the final contract. What to lead?

It is possible that South may be sacrificing over your making game but what is certain is that they have extreme shape. You know they are missing the top diamonds.

The interesting hand, though, is North’s who has been silent throughout…well, not quite silent since at the 4-level they chose their partner’s perhaps shorter second suit as trumps. Ask yourself why and then find the correct lead…A.

Answer this question. Dummy had no high card points. Yet, why was South so happy with their dummy?

 

It was not a “crime” for East-West to double 4 though West might have bid 4NT where there were 5 club, 3 heart (through a marked finesse of 10) and 2 diamond tricks (South may well give West spade trick(s) instead) but failure to lead a trump was.

When West led K, South won, played a top spade, ruffed a spade, ruffed a heart, ruffed a second spade and then played a trump. The defence could take their top trumps and one club trick. That was all. 4 x made.

It is true that a club lead would have worked as long as East switched to their singleton trump immediately. West could also claim bad luck in that had 9 not been in dummy, they could have ruffed a spade successfully with 8.

The point is that South would need to use whatever trumps were in dummy to ruff spades. West knew that. East had a spade hold. In such a situation, the defence must lead a trump and do so at trick 1, no matter how painful it might seem to the defender on lead. Their trump holding might be Qxx or Kx, where it seems you are giving away a trick. Maybe you will but you should regain that trick by cutting down ruffs.

 

West could predict dummy’s shape. A trump lead ..that is the ace, followed by the king and then a third trump was needed to save a disaster. The only way South could make extra tricks was in using dummy’s trumps. Thus, stop that as soon as you can. +100 from 4x down 1 (declarer could only ruff one spade, not two)  was no great triumph but was a lot better than – 510!

Richard Solomon

There are other situations which clearly suggest a trump lead.

                  North             South

                                          1

                  1                   2

                  Pass

 

 Above South opens 1 and then bids 2 after North’s 1 bid, and North passes as shown above ,North may well have just 1 heart and 3 clubs. That is a clear signal that a trump lead is required.  

 

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