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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣J
Declaring six no-trump, South appreciated that he needed four diamond tricks for his slam to succeed, but he failed to apply the right safety play.
Against the slam West kicked off with the club jack, and South could count only 10 top tricks, but with the diamond suit likely to produce the requisite extra two. On winning the club lead in hand perforce, declarer continued with the diamond ace and was brought up short when West showed out — the slam went down the drain.
As South bewailed his bad luck, North poured gasoline on the fire by asking South if he held the diamond eight. When South admitted to that card, North replied that the contract was cold.
South was still mystified, so North went on to explain that declarer’s only problem would come if East held all four missing diamonds. The right line was to enter dummy and lead a low diamond toward the South hand, covering whichever card East elected to play. If East played the three, declarer would insert the eight. Should East play the nine, South would cover. If West showed out, South could now lead back toward the jack. East would win, but declarer would capture the return, re-enter dummy, and finesse against the 10.
If it is East who shows out on the first round, declarer could rise with the king and continue by leading toward the jack, simply surrendering one trick to the queen.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♣J
With your side holding the balance of high cards, I can see an argument for a trump lead to try to kill ruffs in dummy, or for leading the diamond queen to get our side's tricks going. However there is no real reason to jeopardize our potential trump trick or to get overactive, and a club lead looks reasonably safe. I'd lead the jack because of the presence of the eight.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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