BRIDGE

A study in contrasts as a seemingly innocent opening lead led to down two while a head-on attacking start facilitated declarer’s success.

A routine weak two-bid auction to game to shift the focus for West for an opening lead.

At one table of an online match, West decided an attacking start of the diamond ace would be best: after all, he reasoned, the diamond King was odds-on to be with either dummy or East, wasn’t it?

Just not this time and we all know the usual fate the card gods reserve for leaders of unsupported aces, don’t we?

No second diamond loser for South to leave but two club winners for the defenders and a juicy game bonus for North-South.

At the other table, West was a seasoned campaigner who really liked to catch something more than air with his aces. Further, he could see no compelling reason for an ultra-passive trump start and he shied away from a spade lead as he shared the expert disdain for leading from Jack-high holdings that aren’t top of a sequence.

To arrive at a club lead, second-high from four small cards, via the process of having eliminated the other options as less desirable.

To create a scenario that wouldn’t surprise devotees of this thought-process for selecting opening leads: East won the Queen, cashed the ace and switched to the Queen of diamonds for the King and ace.

West cashed the diamond nine and hammered the final nail in by delivering a club ruff (reasoning that his partner would have been very unlikely to take his second club winner if he held three or more cards in the suit).