Oct 13 2010
Your Lead
Playing in the first round of a sectional Swiss, the very first board of the day, you look down at
♠AJ9652 ♥Q93 ♦3 ♣T42
Red on white, first chair, this is a pretty easy 2♠ opener. The auction continues Pass Pass and RHO bids 3NT. You pass, of course, but partner doubles and all pass. Your lead.
RHO is a very good player and could have a variety of hands. He certainly has a spade stopper and most likely a source of tricks (probably in a minor, since opponents tend to bid their long majors). Partner’s double also indicates a source of tricks. But which suit does he need me to lead?
Any suit could be right. Technically the double requests a heart lead, i think, but partner would surely double with any long running suit and hope i can figure it out. It also seems unlikely that his suit is hearts because i have the Queen.
Diamonds could be right, but the opponents could have a stopper in the form of Jxxx or Qxx opposite. If that’s the case we probably have no hope. Clubs could certainly be right as well. Or nothing could be right – partner has certainly doubled making contracts before.
After due deliberation, I finally decide on the ♥Q. I have misgivings about every suit, but a few things push me toward the heart, and specifically the Queen. If i lead low, and hearts IS partner’s suit, he may not be able to work out that i have Qxx; if declarer has stiff Jack with Txx on the board, partner may give up or block the suit. If something like Jxxx hits the dummy, or even KTx, i can lead the suit twice (with my Ace as an entry for the second case). These holdings don’t give partner much of a suit, but it’s enough to sway me.
The heart lead hits the home run. Partner had AKJxxxx. Declarer had a singleton. He might have pulled the double to his minor and gotten to a minor game, but he put the pressure on me to make the right lead.
Upon reflection, the more obvious choice is the spade Ace. Dummy should provide a better clue about the correct shift. I was too concerned with the idea that i might need to get in a second time to lead partner’s suit again. As it turns out, i ate my spade trick since partner was void. But it was still an interesting problem – next time i might not have the spade Ace.