Here is a good defensive puzzle. You are East. How do you plan to defend after partner leads the queen of hearts?
Tag Archives: opening leads
Note: This puzzle appeared in Bob Jones’s bridge column on December 14. I hope you will find it as interesting as I did. Since I am not constrained by space limitations, I felt I could add some insights to his useful discussion.
You are south in 3NT. Partner opens the bidding with two hearts (weak) in 1st seat. You respond 2NT, asking partner about his hand. Partner raises you to 3NT, promising a strong 6-card heart suit.
Opening lead by West is the queen of diamonds. You win in hand as East follows with the three of diamonds. Next you lead a low heart toward dummy, West following with the deuce. Here is what you see and what you know about opponents’ hands before you play from dummy:
You know from the opening lead and play so far that West started with the queen-jack and 10 or 9 of diamonds and (from West’s card at trick two) the deuce of hearts. You know one card that East started with was the three of diamonds. That leaves 9 unknown spaces in the West hand and 12 unknown spaces in the East hand.
Now you need to decide how you are going to play the heart suit.
- How would you play hearts when scoring is matchpoints?
- How would you play hearts when scoring is IMPs?
You can count six sure winners: two clubs, two diamonds, and two hearts. You will need to develolp 3 more winners in hearts to make the contract. 4 more heart winners would give you an overtrick. In matchpoints it’s always better to go for the overtrick when you have a better than even chance of winning it.
In thinking about your decision, notice that hearts provide your only entry to dummy.
Your best line of play depends on opponents’ shapes in their holding of the remaining hearts. What are those possible shapes? Should you finess the jack of hearts now?
This is a good one for one (maybe two) of our Wednesday think out loud lessons.
10 tricks are easy on this one. But you are in five hearts. Where are you going to find the 11th winner? Here is the hand, auction, and opening lead.
Your thoughts at trick one:
- What can I infer from the opening lead?
- What can I infer about opponents’ spade holdings from the bidding?
- If my inferences from opening lead and bidding are correct, then how many cards does East have in the red suits?
- Now that I can picture East’s hand, how am I going to hold my losers to two?
Give it a try and then scroll down for the solution.
Your thoughts at trick one:
- What did you infer from the opening lead? I bet it’s a singleton!
- What can you infer from the bidding? Looks like West must have four spades for the preemptive jump raise. East must have 5 spades to the ace from opening bid.
- If your inferences from opening lead and bidding are correct, then how many cards does East have in the red suits? East has five spades and five clubs. Therefore, East holds three red cards.
Now that you can picture East’s hand, you know to go up with the ace of clubs immediately. Otherwise, East will win the trick and give West a club ruff. When a spade comes back through king in dummy you will be down two after first four tricks.
The idea is to end play East in one of the black suits. Run your seven hearts. By doing so, East must protect the black suits. So, East will be left with 5 black cards:
Now when you cash your ace of diamonds, pitching a low club from dummy, East must discard a club or the queen of spades.
- If it’s a low club, you will lead a club to the king and throw East in with a club. East will have to lead a spade from A,Q into your K3.
- If it’s the spade queen, you will lead a low spade and play low from dummy, throwing East in with the ace of spades. Now you will make 12 tricks, since East must lead into your K, J of clubs!
This is your hand:
You are West defending South’s contract of four spades after the following auction:
Your good opening lead is the queen of clubs, and here is what you see:
As usual, you will must think about where your tricks are coming from. See if you can uncover where partner may have some help. Follow the play until trick 7, and you will have enough information to solve the puzzle.
Scroll below for my solution:
Clues: Did you notice that partner gave you high-low during 1st two rounds of spades? That indicates interest in obtaining a ruff. Also, did you notice that declarer showed up with second diamond (the 3 of diamonds) at trick 7? How many remaining diamonds does that leave for partner?
Solution: Play low at trick 7, partner will ruff dummy’s honor. Declarer will not be able to establish diamond winners in dummy. Defense will come to four tricks: one club, two diamonds, and one ruff.
BTW, have you seen this hand before from another perspective?
You are South, having ended up in a contract of three hearts. East opened the bidding in 1st seat with one spade, and you overcalled two hearts. From there it was an interesting competitive auction, during which West and North indicated weak hands by their reluctance to bid. West leads the king of spades. Here is what you see, including details of the auction:
Trick 1: You won the ace of spades.
Trick 2: You cashed the ace of hearts.
Trick 3 you gave up a spade to East.
Trick 4 East then cashed the king of hearts, West discarding the deuce of diamonds. (See details of 1st 4 tricks above.)
At trick 5 East shifts to the three of clubs. It’s your turn: Use clues from the bidding and play to decide which card to play from hand. Scroll down to see the solution.
Solution: You know from the auction that East has the ace of clubs. Play the queen of clubs and it wins. Once you get to dummy again you will lead another club, putting in the king if East follows low. You are assured of two club tricks, knowing that the ace of clubs is onside.
You are on opening lead. Here is your hand and the auction:
What card do you lead?
Spades look like the best suit to attack. But be careful not to mistakenly lead the king of spades. Fundamental for this holding is to lead the queen, asking partner to play the jack if she has it. If you don’t see the jack when dummy comes down and partner doesn’t play it, then you know declarer has it. The jack will then be trapped between your king and 10.
Recommendation for newer players: pay attention to the hierarchy of cards in each suit during play. It’s much easier than you might think. The hierarchy itself facilitates recall of cards played (known as “watching the spots”). The idea is to keep track of cards that are rising to the top in trick taking power. Of course, practice is essential to developing the skill! But with a little practice it becomes easy.
Here is a prime example. I was North and fortunate to have a partner adept at watching the spots:
You may wonder why I decided to accept partner’s invitation to game with “only” 13 HCP. Look at my (North’s) spots: 13 HCP plus a pair of married 10s and 9s to contribute to our trick taking. Perhaps I was a bit lucky when my partner showed up with all four (yes, 4!) 8s.
Now watch what happened. Heart deuce was led, and declarer used the rule of 11 to deduce that East had at most one card higher than the eight. When East played the jack South could count three sure winners in hearts. The outstanding ace of hearts was the only card higher than those in South’s collection. When the dust settled South had come to 10 tricks: one spade, three hearts, two diamonds, and four clubs. 10 tricks on 24 combined HCP bolstered by those trick taking 10s, 9s, and 8s. Cards take tricks, not HCP points.
Watch those spots and take advantage of your intermediates. Don’t miss out on opportunities presented.
A particularly useful aspect of playing on BBO is the ability to assess errors quickly via post mortem discussion with partner. Here is a hand I thought I had misplayed, and I knew an expert had been in the field sitting in my seat (East). It would be easy for me to see how the expert had played this hand:
Both vulnerable, my partner opened one club in 1st seat. North overcalled one heart. With eight points, three spades and a partial heart stopper I decided to respond one no trump. That’s where the bidding ended.
South led the nine of hearts and this is the dummy I saw:
I was happy to see the nine of hearts, knowing I now had a sure heart stopper. North took three rounds of hearts. But rather than giving me my sure stopper in hearts, he shifted to a low diamond. I correctly recognized that I had a sure stopper in diamonds since dummy had the nine and eight. So, I played low from hand. The rest of it went quickly. And when the dust settled, I was down three for a bottom board. Do you see where I went wrong? What did the expert do that was different? Give it some thought and then scroll down for my evaluation.
What did North do that was different? Answer was easy: East passed at his first turn. It was a negative double situation, and he had a heart stack. There was no reason for him, with eight points, to come into the auction. We bridge players tend to be too aggressive at times, and that was my blunder. No reason not to be patient, partner still has another turn. The huge error on my part was bidding.
BTW, I did misplay the hand, too. I could have salvaged a matchpoint by putting up the king of diamonds at trick four. ☹
Here is a chance to practice your visualization skills during the auction:
Auction suggests that opponents are likely to make 3NT. Perhaps they will, but you should still endeavor to prevent overtricks.
In a recent pairs game on BBO I was the unfortunate declarer when West made a well thought out opening lead. Decide on West’s lead and then scroll down to appreciate West’s thought process:
Follow West’s thought process in visualizing opponents’ hands during the auction:
- South has 15-17 HCP and balanced hand.
- North has invitational or better hand with at least one four-card major (2 Clubs is Stayman inquiry).
- South has four hearts and possibly four spades (answering the Stayman inquiry).
- North signs off in 3NT, saying “I have four spades, partner, please decide on 3NT or four spades”.
- South holds fewer than four spades (took preference for 3NT by passing).
- I only have three queens. Partner may have as much as 8 HCP and should have at least 5 spades (Stayman sequence indicates North has 4 spades and South has at most three). Declarer doesn’t know about our shapes and strength. If I lead the queen of spades through dummy’s “bid” suit, it will be deceptive and will not likely hurt our side. Out goes my queen of spades!
What would Mike Lawrence do?
You are South on lead against 2NT. What clues does the auction give you?
Here is what Mike Lawrence might be thinking:
- It looks like East has two heart stoppers and fewer than four spades. His shape is probably something like 3-4-3-3.
- After my rebid of two hearts, West is still inviting game. He probably has about 17 HCP with shortness in hearts.
- East has nothing extra, probably no more than six HCP.
- Leading a heart does not look like a good idea. How best for me to go passive with this holding?
- It looks like the opponents have a maximum of 7 spades between them – four with West and 3 with East. Partner should have at least five spades. The unusual lead of a singleton spade should not hurt the defense.
- I lead the six of spades.
Here is a hand I observed on BBO. Opening lead is the seven of diamonds. You play low from dummy and East plays the 10. Put yourself in the South seat and plan the play:
Where are your nine tricks going to come from? You count one spade, three hearts, one diamond, and one club. You need three more tricks. A successful club finesse would get you one more trick.
How about the diamonds? It looks to me like you are almost assured of three diamond tricks. Do you agree with me? If so, how are you going to play the diamonds? Give is some thought and then scroll down for the answer.
By “rule of 11” West almost certainly has the ace, jack, and eight of diamonds. Win the queen of diamonds and play a low diamond. That will insure that you get three diamond tricks before your ace of spades is dislodged.
You are South in a contract of three hearts. Here is the auction and what you see after opening lead of the queen of diamonds:
Counting losers like a good declarer, you see two spades, two hearts, and one diamond. You can hold your spade losers to one if ace of spades is onside. How about the diamond loser? East has gotten off to a good lead.
Noticing your combined holding in clubs, you win the ace of diamonds. Then cash the king of clubs and low club, finessing the jack. If the finesse wins, you have a parking place for your diamond loser on the ace of clubs. If the finesse loses, your spade king is protected from attack. Also, you can win any diamond lead and still park your remaining diamond on the ace of clubs.
BTW, I don’t recommend opening two hearts vulnerable with the South hand. South does not have the necessary five playing tricks (within three tricks of making contract when vulnerable). South was lucky to find North with an opening hand and queen-nine third of hearts.
Here is your hand as North on opening lead against four hearts after the auction shown:
Rank the following possible opening leads from first to worst:
- Ace of spades
- Jack of hearts
- Ace of diamonds
- Deuce of clubs
What is your rationale for the rankings?
You are North on opening lead against four spades after the auction shown:
Rank the following possible opening leads from first to worst:
- Nine of spades
- Ace of hearts
- Five of diamonds
- Ace of clubs
What is your rationale for the rankings?
Here is a good visualization exercise for you. I recently saw this hand played in a BBO tournament, and no declarers seemed to put on their Mike Lawrence thinking cap. See if you can do better:
I win the ace of diamonds, East playing the three. What do I make of the opening lead? Opponents started with seven diamonds: Hierarchy of honors K Q J 10 9 as well as the deuce and trey. From what holding would West lead a little diamond when North has made a 2/1 diamond response?
Give this some Mike Lawrence kine thought, and let me know in comments or by email what you conclude.
Best to lead top of a perfect or almost perfect sequence. Lead 4th highest from a long suit only when it is broken.
Declarer will have a very difficult time making 3NT if you don’t give away that trick to the 10 of spades.
Here is a puzzle from yesterday’s lesson at the club:
The standard lead (assuming that you choose to lead from that nice heart suit) is the queen of hearts. It asks partner to drop the jack if she has it. The jack fills in a perfect sequence for South, and there is no way in which East can keep cope with it, either from a later heart attack from North or because she is end played in hearts each time she is in. Put some cards on the table and try possible layouts. You will see why the lead of the queen against notrump has become standard from this holding.
Notice that the queen is in bold (from KQT9 on relevant part of your convention card:
Here is an interesting defensive hand from a recent game. Put yourself in the East seat:
East
North opened the bidding two clubs. South responded two diamonds (waiting). North’s rebid was 2NT (22-23 HCP). Souith raised to 3NT. Finding the right defense was difficult. What would you lead from the East hand?
Time to count: You have 12 points, declarer has 22-23, dummy should have 3+, and partner will be lucky to have so much as one jack.
Knowing from the bidding that partner is probably broke and that opponents have shown no interest in the majors, East should consider a heart attack on opening lead. But which card? I recommend the king* of hearts. Partner will give you attitude when she follows suit. You lead the king, and this is what you see in dummy:
Dummy
When you see Dummy come down you realize that South got a bit too aggressive when she bid 3NT. It’s not a percentage contract, and there is hope for your side. You can now place Partner with two or three points. Partner plays the encouraging seven, and declarer follows with the six. Now what? Do you play the ace or lead the eight, hoping partner has the queen?
My take is that you should cash the ace. It’s more likely that declarer, rather than partner, holds the queen. Partner has no entries, and you may be able to drop the doubleton queen. If partner happens to hold the queen, nothing is lost.
*The recommended lead from A K J 9 is the ace, asking partner to play her highest card. That will let East know if the suit will run. But your heart holding isn’t good enough for that (8 rather than 9).
