Sunday, June 17, 2012

Choose the lead ... for 6 silver points

Playing in a STaC pairs game (one of only two C pairs in a room full of strong players), we are holding our own (we think).  And then, I forget our system and as a result, partner has doubled their contract.

This is the hand I held:
S
South
876543
K9876
5
9
6-5 in the majors, but only 3 points.
Partner opens 2C, which shows a 5+ clubs and an opening hand:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
21
Pass
22
Dbl
2
5
Pass
Pass
Dbl
All Pass
(1) 5+ clubs, 10-15 points
(2) Stayman

We play that 2D now is Stayman and I thought I'd be cute and do a "Garbage Stayman".  Whatever partner bids, I thought I could pass.  Of course, if he rebid clubs, I'd have a problem and if the opponents interfered, I'd have a problem, but I wasn't thinking too clearly.

After carefully ensuring that my 2D was artificial, West doubled.  Partner bid 2H, showing 10-13 points and a 4-card heart suit.  East who had heard enough of our bidding on 13 total points, jumped to 5D.  I passed of course, but partner who thought my 2D showed an invitational hand, doubled for penalties.

So, now, I have to come up with a lead.  What would you lead?  Take a look at my hand (above). Make up your mind.  I didn't know it at the time, but this hand would make the difference between placing in the district overalls and not making it.

Decided?

I chose the singleton club and this turned out to be the full deal:
.
Vul: N-S
Dlr: North
N
North
A
Axxx
xxx
Qxxxx
.
W
West
KQx
Qx
AKxxx
xxx
E
East
J10x
xx
QJxx
AKJ10
.
S
Me
876543
K9876
5
9
.
As you can see, either a spade or a heart lead produce down 2.  +300 would be a clear top.  The club singleton lead that I chose at the table gave declarer the tempo to pull trumps and throw away a heart loser on the good club. -550 was a clear bottom.

So, the lead on this hand produced a 14 matchpoint swing and was the difference between coming in first and coming in third, placing in the overalls (with 58%) or not placing (with 52%).  The lead turned out to be worth about 6 silver master points ...

UPDATE:  I was looking at the wrong thing ... turns out to be a difference of only about 3 silver points.

3 comments:

  1. The only alternative to leading a club is the king of hearts. However partner is more likely to hold the ace of clubs (5+ clubs against 4 hearts).

    So a club lead looks very normal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul,

      I'm curious -- why the king of hearts and not a small heart?

      On your second point, I think the odds actually favor a heart. Since I already know my hand, I need to remove it from the probabilities. Partner has 4 of the remaining 8 hearts, so the odds that he has the Ace are 50%. He has 5 of the remaining 12 clubs, so those odds are slightly less than 50%.

      Of course, he bid clubs and I have a singleton, so it's a very normal lead. Still, our light bidding propelled them to a game no one else bid, so we needed to defeat it. And the "normal" lead had a very heavy cost.

      Delete
  2. I agree, club lead looks totally automatic to me too.

    ReplyDelete