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Part 1.

Well, it was “much ado” about not much since you were dealt one jack. Partner was silent during the bidding and thus there was no stress involved there. Up and up they went with spades looking like their preferred suit until South closed matters with 7NT..leaving you to find the killing or maybe the safest lead!

Nothing to go on…or was there?

 

“Much ado about nothing”

“Nothing” equates to your high-card points and not surprisingly, one’s opponents have gone the whole way to 7NT. Above is your hand (one jack hardly counts for “very much”) and their bidding.

You are playing Pairs.

5 showed one ace and 6 two kings. One presumes that the opponents had all the aces (no double from across the table) and likely all the kings as well. West decided to lead what looked a nice safe top of a sequence diamond which did not exactly give away a trick but proved not so safe either:

Greed?

Reaching for the extra 10 points by bidding 7NT as opposed to 7 can be a good idea, especially when both contracts are cold. One problem in doing so is when one of those contracts, the one you have bid, is not so cold. As happened on this board, half the room were not in a grand slam at all. So, bidding and making 7 (there was absolutely no way to go down with an even trump break), would immediately have given you around a 75%+ board.

On a neutral lead (either major), declarer has, in 7NT, 12 top tricks and has a choice of either the diamond or club finesses to get trick 13. Unfortunately, you cannot try one and if that fails, try the other (you cannot claim “inadvertency” by playing the wrong minor first!). If you decide to take the diamond finesse, cash A first, just in case the Q is singleton or QT doubleton. It would be lovely not to have to take any finesse.

Given the above slight extra chance, it is probably correct to take the diamond finesse and on the actual deal, concede -100 and rather regret not having taken the very good score you would have achieved in 7.

However, when West led the 10, the picture changes. It seems inconceivable that West has led away from the Q. Therefore, just in case the Q is singleton in the East hand, play K. No joy, but now no decision to make, as you will just have to take the club finesse and very soon you will be celebrating a complete top, or South should have been.

Safe but not so safe

So, why not lead the apparently so safe 10? The answer is that there was a safer lead, certainly not the heart even if it proved to be safe. Although North-South were not playing Roman Key Card Blackwood, one can only presume that unless South was a gambler, that they held the Q. If they were playing Key Card, then this statement is even more true since South could/should/would check to see if their partner held that card before bidding to grand if they could not see that card in their hand. West’s spade holding is such that unless East held Qxx, a spade lead would not cost..and even then, it might not. Trust your opponent to hold the Q. You would lead a spade against 7. There is no reason to lead anything else. Therefore, do the same against 7NT.

We will never know which finesse South would have taken given the choice. West gave South no choice but the right choice. Alas, South tried to squeeze out the Q by running all their major winners without finessing in clubs (“they always lose, partner” South could be heard saying in the post-mortem) and ended up one down, despite West’s help.

Lower but worser!

The contract is one level lower and your hand is one hcp “worser”..and, of course, you are on lead again.

 

You still have five diamonds headed by the 10 and have a little more shape this time. 1 was 3+ clubs and 4 and 5 Gerber, the responses showing one ace and two kings. Maybe you did not need a full day to decide on the lead for today. You have a full day as well to decide on tomorrow’s. Whoever said that holding 0 or 1 hcp was dull!

Richard Solomon

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