Contract Bridge

An unfortunate choice

The opening lead often makes or breaks a contract, and we can all testify to this from bitter experience. There is nothing more consistently difficult in bridge than finding the most effective opening lead, but that doesn’t mean the task is altogether impossible.

One can frequently deduce, either from the bidding or from one’s own hand, which card will probably be the best opening shot. There may not be a feeling of 100 percent confidence in the final choice, but that’s not necessary when the evidence clearly points in one direction.

Consider this deal where West, after ruling out a diamond or club lead, opted for his stronger major, spades. Declarer won the trick with the king and quickly ran off eight more to score 600 points.

Had West led a heart, the contract would have gone down five! East would win the first heart with the jack and shift to the queen of spades, and declarer would lose the first nine tricks instead of winning them.

Of course, it’s easy enough — looking at all four hands — to see that the heart lead is best. But the fact is that the heart lead should be chosen without seeing all the hands. West can reason that on the bidding South has either the king of spades or the Q-J-x, so that a spade lead is apt to help declarer more than hurt him.

Conversely — again judging from the bidding — a heart lead is likely to find East with one or more heart honors sitting behind North’s heart honors, and hence is the more attractive lead.