Daily Bridge Club

Opening-lead advice

A club player brought me today’s deal. He was upset with the result, with himself — and with me.

“You’ve written about this situation,” he said. “When I followed your advice, I had a disaster.” My complainant had been West. “South bid spades, then hearts twice,” he told me. “North took a spade preference. I had the hearts tied up and thought declarer might ruff hearts in dummy. So I led a trump.”

South looked with favor on that lead. He drew trumps, forced out the ace of diamonds and later ran the diamonds. Making six.

WEAK HAND

I pleaded not guilty. If the auction had been one spade-1NT, three heartsthree spades, four spades, dummy might provide a heart ruff but little else, hence West could lead a trump. On the actual auction, dummy would have good diamonds as a source of tricks; declarer wouldn’t need heart ruffs.

West should have led a low club, or maybe the king. He kills dummy’s entry to the diamonds, and South fails.

Tomorrow: another opening lead.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ 5 2 ♥ K Q 10 5 ♦ 943 ♣ K 10 6 2. Your partner opens one diamond, the next player bids one spade and you double (negative). Your partner jumps to three hearts. What do you say?

ANSWER: Your double promised heart length plus enough values to respond. Partner’s jump to three hearts invites game; with a stronger hand, he could have cue-bid two spades. Since you have minimum values for your double, pass. South dealer Neither side vulnerable