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The Chameleon Club.

Your partner opens with a suit and the opposition end the bidding with a strong no trump overcall. With queen doubleton in your partner’s suit and a smattering of high-card points in the other suits, the opening lead does not seem to be a problem. “Keep partner happy” is a well-known saying. Lead their suit. If it does not work out, you can hardly be blamed..or that's how it may go.

 

1♠ promises at least a 5-card suit. Are you fingering that ♠Q?

Several of our Panel are going to do just that.

Pam Livingston “♠Q: It might be wrong but at least I win the post mortem.  But seriously, the 1NT overcall could be any holding including Axx or Kx.   I will try to set up partner's five card suit.  Second choice small heart.

It’s a tough game because you are not allowed a second choice.

Andy Braithwaite “♠Q: there is no reason not to lead partner’s suit when I have no clear alternative and partner has more entries than me.”

A lot of negatives, Andy..but no clear other choice

Michael Cornell “♠Q: it’s normally right to lead passively against 1NT but the only really quiet lead we have is the ♣J in which suit the opposition have 7+ cards. If declarer has a strong holding in spades, it could cost leading the Q but if not, it could produce some tricks for us. Why can’t partner have AJ10xx or even better KJ10xx?

There will be some days when a heart is right but it’s much more of a stab and it’s not that I have good pips.”

 

Peter Newell “♠Q: pretty close to leading a low heart, but partner figures to have 10+ points. So, let’s try and get his suit going. They could have 6 spades as being vulnerable they might not likely to be keen to rebid 2♠ with a weak 6 card suit.”

There can be nothing more frustrating than making a poor choice of opening lead. Every bridge player has led away from their king with the queen appearing on dummy and the ace in declarer’s hand. While South may have only one hold in the enemy suit, they aim to have a little better. The lead of your ♠Q can produce a second trick in the suit for declarer whenever South has KJx or even A10xx. Personally, I would rarely overcall 1NT with Ax or Kx. Even with an extra spade and a single hold I would look for a better bid. 

So, there is an alternative lead. Indeed, there could be merit in leading any of the other three suits but the rest of our Panel choose our five-card suit:

 

Kris Wooles “♥6: Last time something similar to this came up, I led disastrously ♠Q finding partner with A8xxx. I’m not superstitious but am suspicious this question is being posed: so, I’m leading ♥6. Any lead is to a degree a matter of guesswork and luck, especially so on this auction.”

 

Bruce Anderson “♥6: obviously this could be wrong. But if South is a strong player, is it likely he/she will have a double stop in spades, such as KJx; then the lead of the ♠Q will not be a success. There is also the inference that with a strong NT type of hand and 4 hearts, South might have doubled, meaning it is a little more likely partner has at least 3 hearts. And I do have two likely entries if we can get the hearts established.”

 

Stephen Blackstock “♥2 (assuming 3rds and 5ths): The lead is a fairly random guess, but I would prefer spades through declarer. Of the other suits, diamonds is the most dangerous, and a 4-card suit won’t establish many tricks so I reject that too. The heart length is more promising, and there is some chance of a side entry if we can establish the suit. Finally, there is clubs. This looks safest in that it won’t do much for declarer that he can’t do for himself. The issue with clubs is that they surely have more than us (no 2♣ call from East), so playing clubs seems like doing declarer’s work.

Do I have any confidence in this lead? No, there is something to be said for and against all suits, and like all too many leads this is something of a shot in the dark”

While a little more confident than Stephen is:

 

Nigel Kearney “Low heart, either 6 or 2 according to methods. The ♠Q lead could easily cost a trick and I have enough potential entries to justify trying to set up my long suit instead. The ♥J could work better in some cases but I think the cases where low works best are a bit more frequent.”

So, the case for the heart is that we do have outside entries, including that devilish surprising ♠Q and we can set up tricks in hearts and then win the lead back and “enjoy them”.

One defender did lead a low heart which went to East’s queen. This won the trick with East next producing ♥9 won by declarer’s ace. South led ♣A and then ♣9 which West won with ♣J. South ducked ♥J continuation but West was in no mood to continue hearts for one possible further trick. On that third heart, East threw a discouraging high spade. West switched to a diamond and the declarer was left in a very bad space:

 

Four diamond, three club and two heart tricks, all for the defence, left South with a bad feeling and three down, vulnerable. ♠Q initial lead would have given South seven top tricks.

Before we receive howls of protest, not the least from the declarer, yes, East-West were playing five- card majors. Length and quality were both lacking. ♣Q did “change its spots” during the play of the hand. It had started life as ♠Q! Not so much a change of colour but a significant change in shape!

That was unlucky for South who would be struggling for 7 tricks had the ♠Q been where it should have been.

It would seem our Panel is divided between leading partner’s supposed suit or the long but not strong one we hold. When you have a long suit and an outside entry, it is often correct to ignore your partner’s opening bid. West had plenty of outside entries including one in partner’s suit. That seems to qualify as a time to lead the long suit I see, despite the high honour in my partner’s suit. No guarantees, though, and a case for saying when the lead backfired, “Oh, sorry, partner, I missed your opening bid!” Oh, the joys of deafness!   

Not playing for the overtrick

Your partner ensured that by raising you to slam. Well, you have and you showed a good hand.

 

Lead ♣K. Over to you.

Richard Solomon

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