The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥K
At the risk of stating the obvious, the defenders cannot see each other's cards. Conversely, declarer can see partner's cards — though this benefit is shared with the defenders. On this hand, South should have appreciated that if East got on lead, a heart through him would very likely scupper the contract. Therefore, declarer needed to use whatever wiles were at his disposal to disrupt defensive communications.
West led the heart king, to the three, seven and two. The opening leader could read East’s seven as being the lowest heart in his hand; therefore, it was likely to be the bottom of three cards. If East had held a doubleton heart, he would have played his highest, unless it was the queen. And if South had held four hearts, he would surely have bid them over partner’s two-club response. So West intelligently switched to the club 10. In with the ace, East returned a heart and down went the game.
Declarer had missed his opportunity for subterfuge. If he had dropped the heart nine under West’s ace, doubt might have been created in West’s mind. With the two still out, West would not have been able to gauge the heart position accurately. East might hold Q-7-2, and the seven might be the highest card available to him to signal liking for the lead.
As a rule of thumb in similar situations, declarer should ‘signal’ as if he were a defender, If he wants the opening leader to continue the suit, he should follow with a high card.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Lead ♣ or ♦K
With no really attractive lead, the choice is to go relatively passive (I prefer a club lead to a heart) or to go aggressive with the lead of the diamond king. There is no right answer here, but I suspect at pairs I would try to play the straight man. Meanwhile, at teams or rubber, I'd opt for the chance to be a hero — or a villain.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
