KILLING LEADS
Couple of days ago I found in my drawer dozens of yellow clips from old newspapers, featuring hands I'd played several years ago. Here are only a few, all of them about first leads.
Deal no. 1:
The first hand appeared in the "Jerusalem Post" some two decades ago, and I quote:
"Look first at the South hand and the bidding. West's 3S bid was a Fishbein asking partner to bid a suit. As South what would be your opening lead?
EW vulnerable
Q10942 N E S W
7 ---------------------------
J6 p p 3H 3S
A8532 p 3NT p p
763 A85 p
8 N KQ542
AKQ4 W E 1083
KQJ96 S 84
KJ
AJ10963
9752
10
Wagner of Israel was South in this deal from the Festival. He made an unusual opening lead, the only lead that could set the contract, namely the spade king. What is the logic of this lead? Was the hope of setting up spades in his partner's hand just a hope or an educated guess?"
Neither a hope nor a guess, my friend, but a simple process of elimination!
Let's assume they have enough points for a game. East just told us he had at least four or maybe even five hearts, probably with the two outstanding honours, and even if he had only one of them, who says they didn't have seven or more tricks in the minor suits before I could get to my hand again? So the heart lead is out!
West most likely had a three-suiter, something like 4144, 3145 or 4135, and East probably held 3433 or 3532 with long hearts. If you look closely you'll immediately realize that a diamond lead has no future. So I was left with the easiest choice of all: I needed much less points in spades in my partner's hand than in clubs in order to defeat the contract! All I needed was that spades and not clubs were his longest suit.
Deal no. 2:
Another newspaper, but more of the same:
10752 S W N E
A3 ---------------------------
KQ104 1NT - 2C -
765 2H - 3NT -
KJ AQ986 - -
876 N K952
7653 W E 2
Q984 S 1032
43
QJ104
AJ98
AKJ
"The bidding was natural, 2C was a Stayman asking for majors, 2H showed four hearts without four spades, 3NT - the final contract showing at least 9-10 points without four hearts.
Against no trump we usually lead our longest suit, but Wagner decided to think instead of following the pack: if North's spades are good, our 4 spade points are wasted and they'll probably make it, but if there are not so good, and South has only a dubleton spade, then our partner has good five spades, very likely with an entry! So he led the King of spades, followed with the Jack and a heart. Down two, and after any other lead NS make 9 tricks."
No comment, Adrian!
Deal no. 3:
This one I wrote all by myself in 1981.
"Warsaw, Poland. My first visit there after twelve years, playing with an old friend, after several beers, which did - or did not - make us see things more clearly...
Tha auction was standard:
N E S W
---------------------------
1NT p 2C p
2D p 3NT p
p p
I held: KJx, xx, xxxx, K108x and decided to lead the King of spades.
My reasoning was very basic: when the opponents have 25-26 points or more I like agressive leads against 3NT, with one single exception - when I don't think they can make it because honors and distributions are clearly against them. No such luck here!
The rest was simple: North has at most three spades and at most three hearts (2C was a Stayman), and there is a fair chance they have only one stopper in one of the majors. If it's hearts, I can't probably do anything against 3NT. But if it's spades, we can beat them!
The reasoning was very basic and the lead very optimistic, since my partner's spades were 109xxx only, but it still was the only killing lead:
109xxx
AQxx
J
9xx
Ax Qxx
K109x N Jxx
xxx W E AKQ109
Qxxx S AJ
KJx
xx
xxxx
K108x
You can easily see that South takes only 8 tricks, since he has no entry to the dummy which he needs in order to cash his high club Queen. Against any other lead he can easily make the contract.
You'll probably ask why the King of spades and not the Jack. But how can I remember after all the beer we drank? Luck? Imagination? Who cares!"
Deal no. 4:
This one is different and I immensely enjoyed reading it again. Guess why!
A109854
J106
5
K72
Q7 K632
98754 N Q2
AQ63 W E J10984
64 S Q3
J
AK3
K72
AJ10985
"Tel-Aviv Pairs Championship, finals. All the NS pairs reached 3NT played by South, usually after weak 2S opening by North (7-11 points, 6 spades) or multi 2D that in the next round revealed the same hand. The most common lead was heart, then South played safely his club suit: small to the King and a small club back and took 10 tricks: 6 clubs, 3 hearts and one spade. Couple of West players led a small diamond, but South guessed the clubs and took 11 tricks.
The contract was easily made by all the NS pairs but one, thanks to Alex Wagner's lethal first lead.
Wagner decided to lead the Queen of spades having concluded from the bidding that South had good controls in all the other suits. The Ace took the trick, but now South had no safe play in clubs! East held the King of spades, West could reach him any time and East would surely return the Jack of diamonds. So why risk the club finesse instead of playing the 10 of spades? If East had the Ace of diamonds the contract was cold!
Needless to say, NS took only 7 tricks."
Nissan, you forgot to mention that our opponents knew that all my life I used the Roman Lead, namely Queen from KQ, so even though with you I'd agreed on natural leads, there was a fair chance that I (West) would take the second trick having led automatically Queen from KQ... South simply played percentages: much more than 50% (Ace of diamonds plus my Roman Lead), higher than guessing the club Queen.
And even though there is no love lost between us, thank you for having had frequently featured me in your column while we played together.
Deal no. 5:
This one is brand-new. My hand (South): Q92, 6, AJ1098, Q853. The bidding:
W N E S
------------------------------
1C p 1H p
2H p 3H p
p p
Well, maybe because of my clubs I decided on an attacking lead. Diamond lead looks dangerous, heart can disclose the trump position whatever this position is, so a spade it must be. But which spade? I made some very fast thinking and my reasoning was as follows: East should have good hearts so almost all the outstanding points are with my LHO. If he has something like K10x and my partner has AJ8x it doesn't really matter whether I play the Queen or the 9, but what if the position is somewhat different? I had to decide fast so the declarer would think my lead was completely natural and having discarded the other possibilities I put the Queen on the table.
Let's see the full deal:
AJ85
Jx
xxxx
Kxx
K74 1063
xxxx N AKQxxx
KQ W E xx
AJ10x S xx
Q92
6
AJ1098
Q853
As you see, if I lead another spade declarer plays a small from dummy and they easily make nine tricks losing two spades, a club and a diamond. But when he sees the Queen of spades he naturally assumes that there are two possibilities:
(1) Qx or Q singleton and there is nothing he can do
(2) QJ9(x) and then he must play a small spade from dummy in order to lose only two spades
And of course that's what he did as every bridge player would. The score - one down, 50 for NS.
If I lead something else than spade East draws the outstanding trumps, double-finesses clubs and my partner takes the King. If my partner doesn't return a diamond there is no problem for the declarer. But after a diamond from North I take my Ace and have another chance to play spades. What's wrong with playing the Queen of spades now instead of then? The difference is that a good player will ask himself why do I play the it only now!!! Now the Queen looks much less natural than before, now South sees the dummy and leading Queen from Qxx is much easier than the first lead of Queen of spades! So many experienced players will now cover it with the King. Of course there will always be some that won't stop to think the position over and won't cover it even at this late stage.
