What holding has partner led from?

Peter Drucker, who was called “the founder of modern management,” wrote, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” In bridge, the defenders hope that they find the best opening lead. However, it will be to no avail if third hand fails to manage the subsequent defence. This week, let’s look at a few of the possibilities. In today’s deal, West leads the heart six against three no-trump. How should East view his side’s prospects? North was right to raise to three no-trump. Remember, strange as it sounds, treat a singleton king as if it were king-doubleton. (But if that backfires once, as it will rarely, please don’t call me at two in the morning!) Whenever the opening lead rates to be fourth-highest and is a relatively high card, usually either the declarer or third hand benefits by applying the Rule of Eleven. Here, 6 from 11 is 5. So East knows that South has only one heart higher than the six, which is surely the nine or 10. (If South has the ace, West would have led the 10, not the six, from 10-9-7-6-x.) This should point

East in the right direction. Under dummy’s king, he must drop the queen. This serves two purposes: It tells partner about the queen and jack, allowing him to underlead the ace on the next round, and it unblocks the suit. (If the queen were a singleton, South would have started with six hearts, which is impossible.) Declarer will take the losing diamond finesse, whereupon the defenders can cash four heart tricks — but only if East unblocked the queen at trick one.