September 10, 2014 – Fourth From Your Longest and Strongest
The play from Sunday night was quite steady, with very few swings. There were, however, three that got away – three games were made at both tables, and all three could have been set. I am going to focus on two of these hands, where third hand had to make a key decision early, but first, take a peek at board eight:
With neither side vulnerable, North opened 1S in second seat. At our table, they were playing precision, and South judged to bid 4S. At the other table, South showed a limit raise, and North bid the game. One East tracked a trump, the other a club. Both declarers won the lead on the table (South) and called for a heart (the jack once, the eight at the other table). Both West’s ducked, so the singleton king scored, and game rolled
.
Should East fly with that ace?
No! I certainly wouldn’t. Going up seems crucial only if declarer started with a singleton honor, but that would give my partner five hearts to the king or queen, and my partner would have led a heart!
I grew up in the days when players still led fourth from their longest and strongest – none of this third from even, low from odd bull in those days. More to the point, defenders tried to develop tricks on the go, and didn’t look for the most passive choice on every hand. I still believe in that. Most hands are a race to the finish line – given time, declarer will develop enough tricks for the contract, but the defenders start with the first blow, the first tempo, and shouldn’t waste it. Leading from your length and strength is an excellent start.
There are plenty of exceptions. Some auctions scream for a trump lead, and you should lead a trump, even if you don’t have any trumps. Some auctions make it clear that tricks will be hard to find, and passive would be best, and on still others, you try to lead partner’s suit. But these are all exceptions. If you lead normally from normal hands, you will set more contracts, for two reasons:
1) You’ll gain a tempo, and
2) Partner will have a better picture of the full hand, and won’t make as many mistakes!
There are two recent books out, trying to revolutionize opening leads. Both look at a huge sample of hands, and use statistics and double-dummy analysis, to develop new lead strategies. Unfortunately, the real game is not played double-dummy. My computer would set this hand on a passive club or trump lead, but real defenders will only set this contract on a heart lead.
That heart lead is normal, and automatic. There is nothing in the auction to suggest leading anything else, so lead a stupid heart! I gave the hand as a problem to my wife and partner – she looked quite puzzled, and said, “You are giving me this as a problem, so there must be a reason not to lead a heart, but I don’t see it. I lead a heart.”
On to the defensive problems for the week. First up, on board 13,
The auction, with both sides vulnerable, went:
Your opponents bid suits up the line over 1C, so South could be 4-4 in the red suits. Partner leads the heart five, fourth best, so, indeed, South does hold four hearts. Your queen wins trick one, as South plays the six. Plan your defense.
The other problem was board 11:
No one is vulnerable, and the auction proceeded:
North-South are playing Precision, with a 14-16 notrump opening, and use support doubles, so South has suggested a balanced 11-13, with a spade stopper, but only two hearts. Partner, as usual, ignores your lead-directing bid, and leads the diamond ten. You win your diamonds, as South follows with the two and the jack. Now what?
On the first hand, you know that South holds four hearts and at least four diamonds, and will likely hold, say, twelve or more points. That doesn’t leave much for partner, but West might hold one useful card. Suppose that card is in hearts. South would then hold a hand like Axx A10xx A10xx 9x. Even with diamonds splitting, South has only eight tricks, but can establish two more club tricks, and partner will never get in to run those hearts. There is no hope for the defense if partner has a high heart.
Okay, let’s give South the heart ace and king, and give partner something more useful, like the spade ace. Maybe the hand looks like this:
If we continue hearts, South will win and attack clubs, developing nine tricks. However, we can attack spades, and use our club entries to set up a second spade trick – that holds South to four diamonds, two spades, and two hearts.
This is our best and only hope to set the hand, and we should shift to the spade three.
By the way, what heart should partner lead from that West hand?
The jack is the textbook lead, and could well be right. Low will often work out better when South has length in the suit, as here. Other layouts where a low heart may gain are:
A low heart lead develops the suit if North plays the queen, while we have no hope if we start with the jack.
Another relevant layout:
Here, leading low blows a theoretical trick, but North will always play the queen, so that trick won’t disappear. Leading the jack may cost the contract if South has only to knock out the ace of spades, and judges to win the first heart.
On the other hand, facing
we do much better starting with the jack.
Which is best? Who knows, but, as usual, I asked my expert partner. She chose fourth best, because the hand had only one potential entry, and blocking the suit seemed too dangerous.
At the table, West held A1082 J10853 972 6, and started with the heart jack, so the hand could not be set. North declared 3NT at the other table, and West, naturally, never even considered the only killing lead – the heart queen.
For the other hand, you are a bit endplayed after the diamonds, and will have to break something. What do we know?
South is marked with only three diamonds, QJ2. That spade stopper must be four to the jack, leaving partner with no spades. That still seems like a shaky excuse not to lead your suit, but …
South has only two hearts, so South must be 4-2-3-4 (or, maybe 4-1-3-5). You have fourteen points, dummy eleven, and South has shown 11-13, so partner will contribute 2-4 points. What tricks can South win?
South has only one diamond winner, and can develop only one spade trick, unless you break the suit. If South is 4-2-3-4, even with solid clubs, the contract has no chance if partner has a heart card. The full hand could easily be, say,
You will set the hand if you play either a club or a heart, so long as you avoid getting endplayed later. South might win a club shift on the table, play the spade six to the eight and jack, cash clubs, and try to lose the second heart to you, but you will unblock (or partner can rise with the queen).
Things are touchier if partner has a club card, rather than a heart card. Consider this layout:
A club shift here lets declarer win four club tricks. It attacks the entry to the third heart, but declarer will overcome that easily enough – club to the nine, king and ace, run clubs, diamonds, and cash two hearts, and then duck a spade to you. You’ll have to give dummy a trick and an entry in spades.
In this layout, you must shift to a heart to set the hand. Which heart? That shouldn’t matter much. The heart five will give declarer a guess if South started with Q10 or Q9, but the contract will still be set, even if South guesses right. Keeping the heart jack might cost the contract in the first layout if West is a bit sleepy, but you will have plenty of time to dump the heart jack, so it is slightly better to shift to the heart five, but take full credit if you shifted to any heart.
The full hand, was, in fact,
East, unfortunately, played a club at trick three, and helped declarer win four club tricks, and the contract.
It looks quite strange to attack dummy’s five card ace suit, rather than Axx, and so it would be were you not counting. Once you count the hand out, it makes perfect sense to attack partner’s four card suit, and not declarer’s.