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Real Life Rescue!

This is no made-up hand to prove that good advice works out. This is real life! I know because I sat North!

 

1NT was 15-17 hcp. 2 was either a range-finder or a weak transfer to a minor. 3 said North was maximum for their opening (nothing to do with clubs) and 3NT concluded the bidding. It is your lead.

There is advice given for leading when there is no clear lead to make…and where the opposition have not shown any interest in either or a particular major suit. That advice is to lead a major over a minor suit because it could be that the opponents are weak in a major suit.

South, certainly, does not seem to have much interest in the majors. They did not use Stayman.  So, there should be no coin-tossing between your 2  QJ10 suits and while there might just be a day when a diamond lead strikes gold, it does not really inspire great hope.

Why not a spade? Well, West did have a chance to double 2 if they were well stacked in that suit. Also, it looks like partner needs less honour cards for the heart suit to be the successful lead than say the spade suit.

So, put your coin away. Cover up your minor cards and place the Q on the table!

 

2 from West (low encouraging) is remarkably good news. All East has to do is play J at trick 2 and their job is done as West will (should) overtake to cash 3 more rounds of hearts.

If the lead was from QJ doubleton, North would  have 3 hearts headed by 10. West would never gain the lead and the game contract would likely make. So, they must hope that East has 3 hearts. They will not have 4 as North would never open 1NT with a singleton heart (would you?).

Notice South’s aggressive action. With North being maximum, there would be excellent chances of running 6 club tricks. That was not the case though on any lead but a heart, North would have Plan B, the diamond suit. AK, 5 diamond tricks and AK would have given North-South an excellent score.

So, in such situations as the above, try leading a major suit.

The smile of a player who found the right lead!

 

 You may not always be as successful as Invercargill’s Kevin Skoropada was on this occasion but you would not lose the post-mortem even if you lost the board. Kevin’s lead saved his side on this board when his teammates played a safe club part-score.

Richard Solomon

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