Aces on Bridge
All this week’s deals come from last year’s NEC tournament in Yokohama, Japan. Today’s comes from the final between an Australasian and a Bulgarian squad.
With the Australia-New Zealand team taking a decent lead into the final set, we saw a moment of low farce. Nobody was hurt, but many of the eight players emerged with scrambled egg all over their faces.
Three no-trump by either North or South has the attraction of nine top tricks, while six diamonds or six no-trump by North are perfectly playable contracts, even if neither is an odds-on spot. I wish I could say the same for either four diamonds, or six diamonds when played by South. A complex relay auction (in which South described his hand precisely) led the Australasians to the very dicey slam.
Having said that, if you reached six diamonds and received a top club lead -- as happened at the table -- you’d count yourself a little unlucky to go down. The point is that you need only 2-2 trumps or the hand with three diamonds to have at least three hearts -- by my calculation about an 80 percent chance. That was what happened to the New Zealand declarer, but East could ruff the third heart and cash the spade ace. Down one.
To add insult to injury, from a Bulgarian perspective, when West led his spade queen against four diamonds on the auction shown, North having passed a forcing call to stop “safely” low, the defenders took two spades, a ruff and a trump trick. Down one and no swing!
ANSWER: A heart lead looks like your best chance to attack a suit where your side has seven or more cards, and the heart nine is the best way to clarify your holding to partner in case a switch is called for. My second choice would be a club; I think, my third, a spade.