[kenberg]

The following comes from a book emphasizing play, not bidding. In particular, a 2♥ opening is strong not weak and 4NT is straight Blackwood.I, but not the author, am posing the question: How do you see the defensive issues of this hand and what is your plan? It's either imps or total points, at any rate the idea is to set the contract.

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I am sure that if you were to ask, you would be told that 3♠ shows spades and some not particularly well specified values, that 5♦ shows one ace and that 6♥ was to play. Beyond that, you are on your own.


The book offered this as a defensive problem, but not an opening lead problem. I am just curious as to what seems right on opening lead. And why.

I'll give the whole hand later.

[nige1]

Thank you KenBerg.

Spoiler

I guess to lead ♥A, assuming that declarer has something like ♠ K x ♥ K Q J x x x x ♦ A K x ♣ A.

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[whereagles]

I would consider a spade, ♦Q or ♥A.

Probably a spade in the end.

[gszes]

Assuming the opps are sane they have both of the minor suit aces
and if we are due a spade trick it is never going away so a
spade lead seems poor at the very best. Since we need to find
another trick to set this it would seem a diamond might give us
out best choice since we have only 4 diamond cards. P did not
opt to x 5d which means they are unlikely to be long in the suit
which in turn increases the chances of setting up a quick trick
there.

Clubs could also work but diamonds seem to have about a 20% edge.
There is also the chance the lead of the dia Q could clear up any
squeeze positions for partner.

[mikeh]

I lead a spade, intending to win the heart A and lead another spade.

I am assuming that declarer likes his Kx or KQ in spades: Kx KQJ1098x AKx A opposite AQJxxx xx xxx xx, no trump 7 in dummy please.

[kenberg]

The hand is number 27 in Victor Mollo's Case for the Defense. As mentioned, it was not presented as an opening lead question.

The lead in the text was the heart Ace followed by another heart, the question then was how East should discard on the run of the hearts, the answer being that East should discard all of his clubs so that West can count the suit. Mollo points out that this may or may not set the hand. A spade lead, followed by another, does set it and I started thinking "yeah maybe I would have led a spade" and then decided I was probably fooling myself, so I decided to see if in fact anyone would. I see that two of you would!

Here is the full hand:

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Given the lead of A and another heart, declarer runs all seven hearts, plays a spade to the King and a club back to his A. After 9 tricks declarer is looking at

I had this next part mis-stated and I have corrected it. I hope I have got the typos and thinkos out!

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W has, no doubt the ♣K. If West still has two spades (starting with four, so E had only two from the beginning) declarer should cash the diamonds squeezing W in spades and clubs. . If W has QJx of diamonds left (starting with four), declarer should cash the A of spades on the board, squeezing W in clubs and diamonds. Tough choice. . [Mollo simply says that declarer might go wrong, he doesn't discuss this further].

With the cards as they are, a spade lead at trick 1 and another spade when in with the heart kills the late entry to the spades and destroys the squeeze.

Should West get it right at trick 1? Beats me. But he is looking at a lot of high cards and he could figure that declarer must have at least eleven tricks after the heart ace is played and so, with all that stuff in his hand, a squeeze is not out of the question. Against that, if declarer holds AKx in diamonds and there is a doubleton on the board it, the actual lead of the Ace and another heart is a good idea. Ah yes, but even though it prevents a 12th trick from an easy ruff, the squeeze might well still work so maybe we should hope there is no ruff and just lead a spade?

I found the hand interesting. We all know that having too many goodies in one hand can create problems, but dummy's suit at T1?

Anyway, Mollo had the W defender starting with Ace and another heart and he did not in any way suggest that this was mis-guided. But the spade works better..On the actual lie, a diamond will clarify the squeeze, and declarer's ten prevents a second, entry destroying, diamond when in with the heart. Of course it could have been different.


I highly recommend the book, by the way.


Added: As the play went, ace of hearts and a heart, the squeeze position is pretty interesting. I mentioned that W could have started with, as was the case, the QJxx of diamonds. But suppose he started with only Qxxx of diamonds. the squeeze still works because in the four card ending East needs to hold on to QJ, or Qx, of spades and so must have pitched a diamond from his original Jx. So if W started with QJxx of diamonds it is a pure club diamond squeeze. If he started with Qxxx of diamonds it is a double squeeze, clubs and diamonds against W, spades and diamonds agianst East. If W stared with xxxx of diamonds, it is a spade diamonds squeeze against E. In the first two cases, the play of the spade Ace executes the squeeze (in the double squeeze case the squeeze was what I think is called progressive, the last heart and the club ace already forcing the diamond pitch from E). In the case where W started with ♦ xxx and E with QJx, the squeeze took place on the play of the club ace. So whenever W started with four diamonds, declarer takes the rest by playing to the spade Ace. But if E started with four spades, then it is a simple club spade squeeze, executed by cashing the diamonds So declarer simply has to ask himself whether E is more likely to hold four spades or four diamonds. Since EW started with six spades and seven diamonds, declarer probably would go with assuming W started with four diamonds. That is, he would get it right. Maybe!

Anyway, the spade lead, followed by another, breaks it up.

One last observation.After A and another heat, if we assume that W has the ♣K for his bid then declarer can make the hand against any distribution of the remaining cards, providing he correctly guesses that distribution.