BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

Having decided to pass initially over north’s 1♥, East opts to pass his partner’s take-out double for penalties. if you had made the same two bidding decisions as East on this hand, what would you now lead? Before you decide to pass a take-out double for penalties, you should always give some thought as to how you are going to defeat the contract. Most important of all is the opening lead you plan to make; this is likely to be critical.

In this precarious situation, you have no idea what controls, if any, are in partner’s hand. All you do know about partner’s hand is that he won’t have more than one heart, or more than 8 points. If you decided to lead the ace and another spade, you’d be gambling recklessly on partner holding the ♠K, and him giving you a spade ruff; if he doesn’t have the king you will almost certainly be letting the contract make.

You must lead a trump! — but which one? It’s just possible that partner has a singleton, and it may be an honour, so you would lead a low trump. You still retain control in the trump suit, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that each time you lead a trump, you’ll be drawing two from the opponents. But most important of all, you’ll not be helping declarer to find the key cards in the other suits.

When he has to play the side suits himself, he’ll have every chance to go wrong — especially as you have concealed this 15-point hand! Tomorrow, we’ll have a look at the full deal.