Here’s your hand
sitting West:
♠ J32
♥ K54
♦ 9643
♣ A97
Here’s the auction with North dealer:
West North East South
P P 1N
P 2C* D** 2D
P 2N P 3N
All Pass
*Stayman
**Lead-directing
What do you lead? In the actual hand, West led the club 7. Here is
the four hand layout:
North
♠ Q976
♥ A107
♦ Q10852
♣ 5
West East
♠
J32 ♠ A107
♥
K54 ♥ 98632
♦
9643 ♦ Void
♣
A97 ♣ QJ1062
South
♠ K54
♥ QJ
♦ AKJ7
♣ K843
South has seven sure
tricks, five diamonds and two hearts. With a club lead, which is
certain with the lead-directing double, that make eight tricks because the king will be good.
After taking the diamonds he leads a spade to his king. Because the ace was
East’s only entry, he ducked, so South had seven tricks and when the heart king
is onside, South made 3.
The mistake was
West’s opening lead. He must lead the Ace and then follow with the club 9. That
forces out South’s king and when South leads a spade, East
can rise with his ace and run the three remaining club tricks for down one.
In this situation,
West must lead his club ace. His partner has made a lead directing
double. He must have a reason. If he doesn’t have the ace or the king, he must
have at least five good clubs. Why else make a lead-directing double? But when
West does not lead the ace, what is east to think? South bid 3N over his
lead-directing double. The obvious conclusion is that he has both the ace and
king of clubs when his partner doesn’t lead one of them.
West, an experienced
player, was upset that East didn’t take his spade ace and lead a club to his
ace, but how was East to know that West had the Ace? He led the club 7. As far
as East knows, he has two or three little clubs and is just being a good
partner by leading the suit.
Don’t make an
ambiguous lead when you can tell your partner something important. One of the
axioms of bridge defense on opening lead is “Don’t lead an ace and don’t
underlead an ace.” That doesn’t apply when defending no trump when you often
underlead an ace if it’s your longest suit. But when you are defending no trump
and your partner makes a lead-directing double, always lead your highest card
in your partner’s suit, even if it’s ace or king doubleton. That tells him the
layout and aids him in the play of the hand. West’s lead of the club 7 (his
lowest club) was worse than awful because it told partner nothing and implied that's all he had in clubs.
In the actual hand,
just about everybody made 3 or 4 no trump, undoubtedly because no defender made
a lead-directing double of the 2 club Stayman bid. This pair got halfway there
but was done in by a terribly ambiguous lead.
