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To Be Sure….To Be Sure.

The auction was quite straightforward and left you with a choice of opening leads. With honours in all three suits except the suit bid by dummy, any lead you choose could be right…or wrong! So, two questions for today in stages.

 

What is your choice of opening lead? Your opponents are playing 5-card majors. Pairs is the game.

I am sure there is no obvious answer as with so many opening leads. Let’s say you chose a small heart. You may get a little surprise by the sight of dummy:

 

No two guesses needed as to North’s aims. They are after 9 quick tricks and can supply 7 of them. The play to trick 1 is interesting. Declarer wins A and your partner, East, plays 2 (low encouraging) with declarer playing 3. At trick 2, South plays 4 off dummy to your partner’s 9  and declarer’s J. You win A…and…?

You can certainly anticipate what South is up to. Clearly, they do not have 9 top tricks and need a trick or two in clubs. So, it is time to cash up as many tricks as you can, hopefully 4 more or else a fistful of spade tricks will soon be played. So, West continued with 8 and the play did not take long from there, though the defence did not get their tricks for another 9 rounds...3NT made! 

 

At trick 1, South had a real dilemma. They had 9 tricks on top (6 spades and 3 hearts) but they could not get to their hand to cash the third heart. One approach would have been to win A and take their spade tricks immediately. They could discard two hearts and three clubs from their own hand and hope the defenders had trouble with their own discarding.

West should be able to discard a heart, two diamonds and a club, while keen to keep a heart, East may discard a diamond and a club. The defence should prevail.

The meaning of a "two"

West’s problem was the heart East played to trick 1. Was East encouraging hearts, playing their only heart, or giving count in the suit? Normally, declarer would not play the ace if they wanted to score extra tricks in the suit bid. Thus, East’s card should probably be encouragement or the reverse. Had they played 4, that just might have left West wondering where 2 was.

When the opposition open and play in a Gambling 3NT (long running minor, no outside ace or king), the usual defence is for opening leader to start with an ace so that the defence's tricks could be taken quickly. This situation was different though not so much with South threatening to play their spades soon.

A clear meaning of a "two"

South could place K with South from their play of that suit at trick 2. It would seem unlikely that South had held the king in both red suits as well. If they held K and K, then the situation would be hopeless for the defence. Presumably, then, South has a weakness. If it was in hearts, then it was unlikely (possible but unlikely) that cashing A at trick 3 would cost. As you can see, that would have produced a more comfortable 2 from East and the contract would have failed by 2 tricks.

Of course, that defence would have been disastrous had East held K and QJ. While West relied on an encouraging heart signal at trick 1, they might just have played that A first, to be sure, to be sure!

Richard Solomon

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