Listen to the Bidding

by Philip Adler

You are on lead against three notrump holding ♣ K-10-9-7-6. Which one would you lead?

This problem faced many players in Round 20 of the qualifying session. It is "textbook" to lead the ten, top of touching cards from an interior sequence. And that is what the English West did against USA1 in the D’Orsi Seniors Bowl. If you look at the diagrammed deal (rotated to make South the declarer), you will see that it did not work well.

Dealer East. East-West vul.
	♠ 7 4 ♥ A K 8 2 ♦ A K 9 7 6 2 ♣ 3
♠ Q 10 5 ♥ Q 9 5 ♦ 8 4 ♣ K 10 9 7 6		♠ 6 3 2 ♥ J 10 6 3 ♦ J 10 3 ♣ A J 5
	♠ A K J 9 8 ♥ 7 4 ♦ Q 5 ♣ Q 8 4 2

East won with his club ace and returned the club jack, but South covered with the queen and his eight was a stopper with West on lead. Even if West shifted at trick three, declarer could take two spades, two hearts and six diamonds.

Bobby Wolff realized that the bidding suggested South was very likely to have some club length. And if so, his partner might be short. So Wolff led the club six. Now when Dan Morse (East) won with his ace and returned the jack, East-West took the first five tricks in the suit. Nicely done.

This is similar to leading from, say, K-Q-J-x-x against notrump when declarer has bid the suit. You need partner to have to ace or ten, but since he will probably be short in the suit, you should lead fourth-highest, not the king.

Now to come clean. In fact, South had the diamond jack, not the queen, and East had the queen. Even the English defender would have survived his lead if, at trick three, he had shifted to a red suit instead of cashing the club nine, hoping his partner had started with A-J-8. But that does not detract from Wolff's thoughtful lead.