BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Neither vulnerable. East deals.

NORTH

xA K J 6 2

uK Q 7

v10

wA 7 6 5

WEST EAST

x10 8 5 xQ 4

u10 u9 6 4 2

v8 6 5 4 2 vK Q J 9 7

wQ 9 4 2 wK 10

SOUTH

x9 7 3

uA J 8 5 3

vA 3

wJ 8 3

The bidding:

EAST SOUTH WEST NORTH

1v 1u 4v* 4NT

Pass 5u Pass 6u

Pass Pass Pass

*Pre-emptive

Opening lead: Four of w

Good declarers are in the habit of analyzing the opening lead— why that suit, why that card and what does it all mean? They don’t always do this at trick one.

South won the opening lead with dummy’s ace, noting the 10 from East. He cashed the ace of spades before drawing trumps in four rounds, discarding a club from dummy. Next came a spade toward the dummy and South took some time to think about the hand.

East-West were using ”third and fifth” leads, meaning they led the third-highest card from an even number of cards and the lowest card from an odd number. East could therefore not have started with the king-queen-ten of clubs— West would not have led the four. King-ten-deuce was possible, but it seemed more likely that the lead was from four cards to an honor and that East had started with either king-ten or queen-ten doubleton. East had shown up with four hearts and likely five diamonds. Should East have started with a singleton spade, or three to the queen, the contract was not makeable.

Assuming this analysis was correct, then East had shown up with a combined maximum of nine high card points in hearts, diamonds and clubs. South reasoned that East needed to hold the queen of spades or he would not have the values to open the bidding, so he rose with dummy’s king of spades and ”great was the fall thereon.”

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