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  Listening to the Bidding.

That’s what you should be doing as a defender whether you have lots of hcps or lots of 4s and 5s! Either way, if you and your partner do not bid, you are likely to find yourself on lead!

 

 

Your opponents’ are playing Precision so that South’s 2 reverse may not be that strong in high card points, perhaps good shape. Well, "shapely" seems to be the case here. So, what is your lead?

You may have seen the above hand before, if you were playing the on-line Teams last Saturday or if you were reading this feature yesterday. Our West did not call over South’s opening and then the opponents bid all the way to game.

Seeing as this is the season of “good will”, you did not have to find the right lead at trick 1 but if you retained the lead after starting with A, you had better do right with your choice at trick 2!

 

 

This is one of those situations when it is correct to lead a trump. Leading a trump when you do not know what to lead is most definitely wrong but here you know that it is the right thing to do. The above situation is one where North had to give preference to hearts out of necessity rather than out of choice. Had North held more than two hearts, you should have heard them give heart support earlier. The above major suit lengths for North is about what you would expect, with South showing 6+ hearts and 5 spades. They may well need to use dummy’s trumps for ruffing..and they most certainly do here.

The other reason you want to lead a trump here, and it is a positive reason rather than being unsure of what to lead, is that you have no suit you want to attack. North’s 2NT might be based on KQ (not this day, of course). Certainly, you would want to cash A if North had AQ and your king could be finessed for a diamond discard, assuming South was 1-1 in the minors. However, the need to draw dummy’s trumps is paramount.

Had West started with A, they must find the trump switch immediately or else they would be recording -620.

East is happy to forgo their Q at trick 1. If the defence did not lead trumps, Q would score a trick but only because, North’s trumps had been used for ruffing spades. So, lead a trump and when South leads a spade at trick 2, win and lead a second trump. While holding the A, you are in control of the defence as the above indicates. The spade play at trick 2 seems to indicate that West had found a good opening lead.

South may have better spades in which case there may be no lead to beat the contract. On this occasion, with North’s trumps drawn, South has to lose 3 spade tricks along with the A.

Reflections of West's (in) action

We talked yesterday about whether West should double, bid 2 or stay silent after South’s opening bid. The Panel’s choice was to double, with pass second best. Some doublers did get into trouble when East ventured in with 2 after North’s 2 call. South rather enjoyed defending that contract, especially doubled. Perhaps, that demonstrates no action is perfect.

There was no -1100 this time from overcalling 2. Even with East’s excellent trump honours, this contract should be defeated. However, either a longer trump suit or simply a better hand is advisable for a 2-level overcall. On this deal, the best West could do is say nothing and lead a trump.

Richard Solomon

 

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