Saturday, June 21, 2003 9:49 PM

Opening Leads

PITBULLS:

Opening leads are a bidding skill . If you are a bad bidder i.e. do not understand bidding concepts , your opening leads will be bad. You will follow rote rules like 4^th best from longest and strongest when the bidding suggests an alternative lead. Opening lead problems are always a part of bidding contests in publications like Bridge World for a reason.

The late Mike Chomyn said “always lead trump against partials” . He was pretty close to being right on . They are in a suit contract for a reason and one reason is to get tricks by ruffing . Leading trumps against low level doubled contracts when you out gun them badly in HCP’s is also a mandatory lead . Listening to the bidding and knowing where the strong hand is located and making an active or passive lead by taking that into consideration is a must .

Expert partners make lead directing doubles quite frequently . Knowing this , if partner fails to double a Q bid or a Blackwood response , you should write off that suit as an opening lead possibility. You hold Qxxxx of spades and Kxx in diamonds which is the unbid suit and the opponents reach 6♥. The opponents Q bid spades and partner had a chance to double and did not . The unbid suit is a much safer lead then a spade as aggressive leads in small smalls are usually the order of the day.

Here is an article by Benito Garozzo on the subject :

Games may be quietly defended, but slams must be ATTACKED.

Benito Garozzo

(Italy)

Benito Garozzo developed his game after the war in Egypt. (‘In those days I was the big expert’, Léon Yallouze once told me with a smile.) In 1957 Benito played a tournament in London with D’Alelio. He played in his first world championship in 1961 and from then on was unbeaten in Bermuda Bowl and Team Olympiad competitions until 1976.

Garozzo and Forquet were an unbreakable rock in match play, and whenever Garozzo was teamed with Belladonna in one of the big pairs events the only question, in Walter Hagen’s phrase, was ‘Who’ll be second?’

Heroic measures are rarely needed when leading against a game contract. The defenders can expect to get the lead again after the dummy has been exposed, and the early play offers further clues to what they should do.

Not so against slams. Unless two tricks can be cashed at once, the defense must strike a telling blow to develop the setting trick by the opening lead. Later is too late.

‘The one factor that works in favour of the defense is that declarer is rarely willing to risk immediate defeat if any alternative seems attractive. And sometimes such an alternative can be created by the lead itself. For example, your opponents have bid to six diamonds as follows:

South	North
	1§
2¨	3§
3¨	3ª
4NT	5©
5NT	6¨
Pass

Sitting West, you hold:

ª Q 9 5 2

© K 8 4

¨ J 5 3 2

§ K J

In most ways your defensive prospects are poor. The K-J of clubs look dead, underneath the rebid suit, the king of hearts is unlikely to take a trick. But do not despair: you have one asset the dealer knows nothing about – your trump trick.

Lead the jack of clubs. The fact that you let him see the jack makes it even more likely that he will be able to establish the suit with no more than a single loser. In fact, the jack would be the right card from K – J – x as well. The full hand:

		ª	A 8
		©	Q J 3
		¨	4
		§	A Q 10 8 6 3 2
ª	Q 9 5 2		N		ª	J 10 7 6 3
©	K 8 4	W		E	©	9 7 6 5 2
¨	J 5 3 2				¨	8
§	K J		S		§	5 4
		ª	K 4
		©	A 10
		¨	A K Q 10 9 7 6
		§	9 7

Declarer knows that he can establish the clubs by giving up a trick to the king, but why should he risk doing so when there is a danger of a ruff? He goes up with § A and by the time he finds out he must lose a diamond it is too late. On any other lead he must make the contract.

Not quite so clear is how to attack South’s Slam contract after the following bidding:

South	North
1¨	1ª
2§	3¨
3NT	4§
4NT	5©
6¨	Pass

Sitting West, you hold:

ª K 7 6 2

© K 1083

¨ 975

§ 62

It sounds as though the opponents have reached a "momentum" slam, which may not be reached at the other table. So it is even more important for you to defeat it with your lead. How much do you know?

North is surely short in hearts and declarer has few spades, so a trump lead seems promising. But wait! Neither opponent has indicated long trumps and both seem to have length in clubs. On such deals it is rarely necessary to stop a cross-ruff, because declarer is unable to cash enough tricks in his long side suit – in this case, clubs. However, if he needs to pick up a twelfth trick, you know that a spade finesse is going to succeed. How can you point him away from that line of play?

What is partner going to contribute to defense? >From the fact that South didn’t bid 5NT (as he did on the previous deal) it is possible that his side is missing an ace – probably the ace of hearts. If not, you can still hope for the queen of hearts, because – yes, you are going to lead the king of hearts!

		ª	A Q 10 8
		©	7
		¨	K J 4 2
		§	A 10 7 4
ª	K 7 6 2		N		ª	J 9 4 3
©	K 10 8 3	W		E	©	A 5 4 2
¨	9 7 5				¨	10 6
§	6 2		S		§	J 5 3
		ª	5
		©	Q J 9 6
		¨	A Q 8 3
		§	K Q 9 8

When your king of hearts holds the first trick, you shift to a spade. Declarer may decide that your lead has made it unnecessary for him to rely on the spade finesse. All he need is a ruffing finesse through your marked ace of hearts, because he can ruff two spades and throw one of the established heart – except that when he runs the queen of hearts your partner takes the trick!

Given any other lead, declarer simply must take the winning finesse in spades’.

Benito gave one other deal, but it didn’t add much to the sensational lead of the king of hearts, and as a matter of fact there was a slight overstatement in the analysis. Did you notice, by the way, how the last deal tied up with Tony Priday’s advice on the question of camouflage?

Having sharpened your mind by a study of Garozzo’s thought-process, see what you can make of a lead problem that arose in a match between Australia and Sweden in the 1977 Bermuda Cup. At game all the bidding goes:

South	West	North	East
1NT	Pass	2©	Pass
2ª	Pass	3©	Pass
3ª	Pass	6ª	Pass
Pass	Pass

South’s 1NT opening is 15-17 and North’s response of 2 hearts is a transfer to two spades. As West, what would you lead from:

ª Q 8 7 4

© 10 8

¨ 10 7 5 4

§ A Q 8

North is likely to hold five spades (at least) and South three spades. With ª Q-x-x-x and a side ace, you must fancy a forcing game..

What do you make of the club situation? Players with singletons generally make some form of ace-enquiry on the way to a slam. So North, in view of his leap to six spades, is probably void of clubs. To weaken the dummy while still holding § A for a later force, West must underlead the ace of clubs.

The exciting thing is that Anders Morath, of Sweden, who earlier in the year had won the Bols Brilliancy Prize, did so. The full hand was:

		ª	K 10 9 5 3
		©	A 9 6 5
		¨	A Q 6 2
		§	---
ª	Q 8 7 4		N		ª	6
©	10 8	W		E	©	Q 4 3 2
¨	10 7 5 4				¨	8 3
§	A Q 8		S		§	J 9 7 4 3 2
		ª	A J 2
		©	K J 7
		¨	K J 9
		§	K 10 6 3

Dick Cummings, the Australia declarer, in his own words, accepted the force with the air of a man who does not enjoy early commitment. However, he found both major-suit queens and laboriously slotted twelve tricks.