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Dealer North
Game all


North
â™  A J 9 8 7 
♥ 3 
♦ A K 7 4 
♣ A Q 6 


East
â™  6 5 3 2 
♥ A K 4 2 
♦ Q 8 3 
♣ 8 3 


West
â™  Q 4 
♥ J 9 8 7 6 
♦ J 5 2 
♣ 10 9 2 


South
â™  K 10 
♥ Q 10 5 
♦ 10 9 6 
♣ K J 7 5 4 




  

Robson
Gordon
Zia
Sam
  
  


1â™ 
Pass
1NT
  
  

Pass
2♦
Pass
2â™ 
  
  

Pass
3♣
Pass
4â™ 
  
  

All pass



  
  


  

Stuart
Price
Ian
Simpson
  
  


1â™ 
Pass
1NT
  
  

Pass
3♦
Pass
4â™ 
  
  

All pass



  
    

Room 1
After Gordon and Sam’s auction marked the heart shortage in the North hand, Zia cunningly underled his ♥AK at Trick 1, and Robson must have been surprised when his ♥J won.  He returned a heart which Gordon ruffed.  Gordon lost a trump finesse to Robson, who returned a third heart.  Gordon carefully discarded on this trick, so that dummy could take care of another heart lead.  If he had ruffed in hand again, Zia would have trump control and would eventually come to a trump trick and the ♥A to defeat the contract.  After winning the third heart, Zia returned a trump, so Gordon merely drew trumps and ran his clubs to come to ten tricks.  Well defended and well played.

Room 2
Despite the difference between Price’s and Gordon’s evaluation of the North hand, the same contract was reached, and Price was not put to the test on a spade lead.  The ♠Q was flushed out at Trick 1 and he simply drew trumps and cashed out for twelve tricks and a 2IMP gain.

Result and analysis

Gordon did well to maintain control in Room 1 but ended up losing 2 IMPs, which are allocated to better (or perhaps more inspired) defense.

Additional comment

Problem 5 asks what you would lead from the East hand against 4♠, on the auction from Room 1.  What’s to be said about that low heart lead from Zia?  That it is inspired?  That it is brilliant and shows the awesome ‘card sense’ of the top players?  Yes, you could say something like that.  On the other hand, though, you could also say something like this:
•	East has trump length.  Those four spades might not look like much, but perhaps declarer can be forced.  
•	How to force declarer?  On the bidding, declarer is marked with at most one heart. So East can plan to force declarer to ruff a heart.  
•	What is dummy’s heart holding going to be?  It seems likely to include the ♥Q.  So if East just bangs down the ♥AK, declarer will ruff and the ♥Q will be set up.  No forcing defence.  No good.
•	So the best shot is to lead a low heart at trick one.  If partner has the ♥Q, he will work out what is going on.  After all, he can see we have some trump length.  If dummy has the ♥Q, declarer is unlikely to guess to play it.  If declarer has the singleton ♥Q, everybody will have a good laugh at trick one.  But still, a low heart lead looks like the best chance of beating the contract, and so that is what Zia chose to lead.
We are not saying that underleading the ♥AK is the ‘indicated’ lead, or that it is in any way clearcut to do that.  Far from it.  But it would also be wrong to just say that this lead was ‘inspired’ and leave it at that.  Sometimes ‘inspired’ play happens as a result of cold hard logic, counting, analysing, and then trusting your analysis, rather than just applying the “opening lead algorithm” of looking for an appealing sequence to lead from, or failing that a useful shortage, or failing that just leading the fourth best of our longest and strongest.


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