Dealer
: East
Vuln : Both |
HAMMAN'S
TIPS #37
by Bob Hamman
the world's #1 ranked player
|
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Did
you lead a spade? This was one of the
biggest swings of
my life, from the final of
the 1980 Olympiad, where we
lost to a
French team. I chose the wrong lead, the
ace
of hearts, because my partner showed
length in spades,
and I thought at the time
that a heart was more likely
to cash.
Declarer ruffed, called for the king of diamonds,
and then
took the marked finesse through the
queen. We went minus
a cool 2330, instead
of plus 200 after a spade
lead.
At
the other table, our teammates, North-South, collected
200 against 6 doubled, so our
team lost 19 imps. There
were two reasons
for leading a spade: (1) North cuebid
2 . He
could have cuebid 2; if I trusted him, he
held
first-round control of hearts, not spades.
Here's a better
and deeper clue: (2) South
used Blackwood, indicating second-round
control of spades
(with two small spades, he
would never Blackwood, and with
a void in
spades, he would cuebid instead
of using
Blackwood). Therefore, he was marked with
a singleton
spade. Count the spades. If
North is void in spades, my
partner has
six of them and would almost surely have
bid
6 rather than pass over North's 6 .
My
tip this week is to mentally return to the
auction when
you must make a crucial
opening lead against a slam or
grand slam.
Picture what declarer and dummy have
indicated
for their bidding.
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K
J 7 5
East