Contract Bridge

The opening lead is frequently the most important play of a hand, but unfortunately it is often only a shot in the dark.

This is particularly true when the opening leader has no useful information from the bidding to guide him to the most effective lead.

West had little to go on in the present case and decided to try to find his partner’s best suit by leading a spade. This proved very successful when declarer, seizing the opportunity for what looked like a free finesse, played the jack from dummy, covered by East with the queen.

Declarer took the king and tried a diamond finesse, losing to the king. East forced out the ace of spades, and South eventually went down one after East scored the ace of clubs as well as his remaining spades.

West’s shot- in-the- dark spade lead turned out very well, but only because declarer misplayed the hand. His play of the jack at trick one was clearly wrong, since it opened the door to defeat when he could have assured the contract simply by playing low from dummy.

Though he had no good reason to suspect a short- suit lead from West, South should have provided against that contingency by resisting the impulse to play the jack on the opening trick. He could then try the diamond finesse, not caring a tinker’s damn if it lost, since East would be unable to make a damaging return.

South could then force out the ace of clubs to guarantee at least 10 tricks and could do so without risking the contract. The “free finesse” thus wasn’t free at all. On the contrary, it proved very costly.