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                    But you gain!

Sacrificed in a Good Cause.

You are defending a no-trump contract, a tell-nothing about my suits 1NT opening. There are times when you make a speculative lead in a two or three card suit, especially a major suit in the hope of finding partner’s suit (maybe a spade on the West hand below) and there are others when you go for a “tried and true” 4^th highest of your longest and strongest.

This was a time to do the latter. You were not going to lose any post-mortem…surely?

 

 

1NT is 12-14. You lead 4th highest of your longest and strongest with partner contributing J and declarer's ace winning the first trick. Declarer plays 9 which you win with the K as partner follows with 2. Your system is natural count if given. What do you play to trick 3?

Well, that club lead did not fare too badly although partner’s J was a bit revealing in that it showed declarer held 10. That was not altogether good news for West. Neither was the lie of the diamond suit. Declarer will surely win your return and play a second diamond and use the A if necessary, to return to dummy to run some diamond tricks.

Look for the good news

There is some. The first piece is that you hope your partner will be giving count in what must surely be a key suit on this deal, diamonds. Assuming that the 2 is not a singleton (in which case South will have no problem running diamond winners), your partner has three diamonds and declarer two.

So, you can deny declarer access to their diamond winners but it will probably come at a cost. You must exit Q at trick three, setting up a trick for declarer’s 10 unless that was doubleton but almost certainly denying South access to any diamond tricks. Watch…

 

Declarer had to take their ace and tried a heart to the king and a second diamond. You win and can now exit a spade. It is true partner’s spades do not have to be that good but you would not want to return any other suit. Either then or in a couple of tricks’ time, South will take their A and can only take 10 and exit a club to West. West will be forced to exit a heart if declarer held up spades until the third round. No worries as those wonderful spades take the rest of the tricks.

Declarer managed three clubs, one heart and one spade..down 2. The same can be achieved, though in a different order of tricks, after an initial spade lead.

The keys to the successful defence were:

• East giving count on the first round of diamonds so that West knows how many diamonds South has.
• West sacrificing a club trick in order to stop declarer from scoring any diamond tricks.

                     Defending is fun!

Whoever said that 4^th highest club leads were bad and that defending was not fun? Neither comment applied to this board.

Strange Bidding: but it’s your lead!

 

 

1NT is 15-17 and 2 promises both majors. Somewhat strangely, you reach 4 but the opponents have not finished…and you are on lead to 4x. Over to you.

Richard Solomon

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