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The Price of Pre-emption.

We all know that pre-empts do work. Otherwise, we would not keep opening our Weak 2’s, 3’s and 4’s. Yet, there are times they come at a price.

 

Your 2 showed 5 hearts and 4+ of a minor suit. You wanted to get into the bidding and hearts are certainly your best asset, or so you thought. North’s 3 was Michael’s style, spades and a minor and that allowed South to bid the spade game.

It is your lead?

You do not know a lot about the opposition’s hands, especially South. Dummy has 5 spades, presumably an opening hand, and a 5-card minor but you do not know which.

 Meanwhile, your partner had the chance to double 3 if they had any interest in that suit. So, leading that suit is not that appealing. A singleton trump is not often a great idea. So, it’s down to the minors. Either lead is speculative. We tend to avoid unsupported aces so for no other great reason than it’s the only suit left, we try 4, a slightly deceptive middle of three lead.

Well, it was in itself not a disaster to lead that suit but the chance to beat the game had gone.

 

The declarer won the lead in dummy and set about drawing trumps. Aware of West’s opening bid showing at least 9 cards which were not spades, and knowing West would not open 2 with a 4504 shape (already impossible from the opening lead!), South started by leading A and continued with T. When East played low on the second trump (it would not help them to cover), so did South.

Vacant Spaces

A third spade went to the king after which South played out their diamond winners. East could ruff or not ruff but either way, South would have 10 tricks.

South had used the principle of Vacant Spaces, indicated by West’s opening bid that if there was to be a bad spade break, East was the one who would have length in that suit. Thus, spades were played in a slightly unusual manner.

Compare that with where East-West did not bid. Firstly, North would have opened 1. East might have called 2 but many would not have bid in that seat. The bidding might therefore proceed:

North             South

1                   2  (because only 4 hearts)

2                   3   (invitational)

4                   Pass

Let’s say the same suit led, J. How would you as North play trumps? The normal way would be K and a second spade….down one with two certain trump losers. So, a minus for the 2 opening which caused the declarer to play trumps in the correct manner.

Even if North had overcalled West’s 2 opening with 2 again leaving East on lead to the eventual 4 contract. The contract- killing club lead is possible but why not lead a doubleton heart? With the “damage” done by the 2 opening, this lead should not beat 4.

Of course, East, more likely, or even West, might lead a club and that lead and a second club does beat 4. North will then have the same number of trumps as East. Even if declarer plays trumps correctly, East can cover 10 on the first or second round and when declarer plays a third round of trumps, East continues clubs and will soon have one more trump than North. Thus, the club lead should always be successful for the defence.

“Every dog has its day” but this was not the one for a Weak 2-suiter opening by West. That’s not to say this is a bad convention, though some do not like such openings. It’s supporters will remember better results from this convention and will rue that the “Vacant Space” principle was applied correctly by the declarer.

Another opening lead for you

 

1 is natural and promises at least a 5-card suit. 3 is Bergen style, 6-9 hcp with 4 spades and double is lead-directional.

So, your choice is?

Richard Solomon

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