If they fly high, use a parachute

Margaret Mead, who was a cultural anthropologist, said, “Life in the 20th century is like a parachute jump: You have to get it right the first time.”

At the bridge table, when you are on opening lead, a fair percentage of the time, you have to get it right the first time. To test yourself on today’s deal, cover the North, East and South hands. North opens one spade, East passes, South responds two diamonds, you (West) overcall four hearts, North jumps to six diamonds, and South raises to seven diamonds! What would you lead?

This deal occurred in last year’s European Champions Cup in Bucharest. It was described by Jos Jacobs from the Netherlands.

In the match between Monaco and Israel, the same auction occurred at both tables.

The Israeli West led the heart ace. This conceded a ruff-and-sluff on which declarer’s spade loser disappeared. At the other table, Michal Klukowski was West. He knew there were voids flying around at this nosebleed level.

What was his safest lead? The spade queen. As you can see, this defeated the grand slam, South having an unavoidable spade loser. (A club would have also worked.)

In the match between England and Greece, the Greeks went down in seven diamonds after the same auction when Mike Bell led the spade queen.

At the other table, North ended in six spades. When East led a club, the contract made. Should West have made a Lightner Double? If he had, would East have led his singleton diamond queen? Note that West ruffs that, and East also gets a trump trick.