TEST YOUR LEADS FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

To start the week, try an openinglead problem. Look at the West cards and auction. Pick a lead against four hearts. First, analyze the auction. Decide on a plan of defense. North’s 2NT showed a good balanced hand with a spade stopper; South has long hearts and a shapely hand.

Say you lead your deuce of spades: five, queen, eight. East exits with a club, and South forces out your ace of trumps. He ruffs your spade return, draws trumps and loses a diamond finesse. He still has a trump left and can claim the rest.

Control

Since West has four trumps, a “forcing game” may work: making declarer ruff so that he runs out of trumps and loses control. Since the bidding marks South with spade shortness, West’s opening lead should be the jack of spades.

Then the defense can force South to ruff a spade at Trick Two. When West takes the second trump, he forces again. South must spend all his trumps to draw trumps, and when East takes the king of diamonds, he has a spade to cash.

Daily Question You hold:

♠ K75 ♥ 9 5 ♦ A Q 10 6 2 ♣K Q 10. Your partner opens one club, you respond one diamond and he rebids two clubs. What do you say?

Answer: Slam is possible — your partner could hold 2, A 6 4, K 9 3, A J 9 6 5 2 — and a forcing jump to four clubs might initiate a cuebidding sequence to slam. An option is a temporizing bid of two spades. If he has a hand such as A 2, K J 7, 8 7, A J 9 6 5 2, you would prefer to stop at 3NT.

North dealer

Both sides vulnerable