Ace, King, Queen – easy…
Finding yourself on lead with an ace-king-queen, you are for once spared indecision. If there's a better lead then no-one will slight you for overlooking it – well some won't. Conventional practice has it that you lead the top of a sequence and follow with the lowest but this may not be all the information the defence requires. This deal arose in last week's NICKO match:
| Game All Dealer South | ♠ 3 | ||
| ♥ K | |||
| ♦ AKQ874 | |||
| ♣ KJ1042 | |||
| ♠ KQJ762 | ♠ A105 | ||
| ♥ 5 | ♥ AQ102 | ||
| ♦ 32 | ♦ 1095 | ||
| ♣ 9875 | ♣ A63 | ||
| ♠ 984 | |||
| ♥ J987643 | |||
| ♦ J6 | |||
| ♣ Q | |||
| West | North | East | South | |
| 2♥ | ||||
| Pass | 4♥ | Pass | Pass | |
| 4♠ | End | |||
West backed the principle that if it feels right to bid four spades over four hearts then it is; dummy contained quite a few of the cards he was hoping for. North led the diamond ace, king, queen in that order, how should south defend?
As the third round of diamonds might be winning, he more or less had to throw his singleton club, albeit the queen. That could have been fatal had declarer held the knave-ten of clubs, but there was no immediate harm here.
In fact the deal might appear in a text book on counting. With only seven black-suit winners West needed three from hearts. As South opened a vulnerable weak two (so North holding king-knave alone was too remote to contemplate), there was only one lie of the suit to achieve that – the one above. Declarer should pick up the king then having reduced him to just hearts, endplay South by exiting with the deuce. Declarer tried a less successful approach
But to lead the ace then queen, you might not have the king, from the Suffolk Championship Teams Qualifier:
| Love All Dealer West | ♠ AK9743 | ||
| ♥ 7 | |||
| ♦ K97 | |||
| ♣ 1095 | |||
| ♠ 5 | ♠ Q102 | ||
| ♥ KQ1065432 | ♥ --- | ||
| ♦ 5 | ♦ AQJ1032 | ||
| ♣ KJ2 | ♣ A763 | ||
| ♠ J86 | |||
| ♥ AJ98 | |||
| ♦ 864 | |||
| ♣ Q84 | |||
West opened four hearts, North overcalled four spades and East doubled – just to prove it's not always right. East led the diamond ace and followed with the…?
The queen worked reasonably well; West ruffed and led back the heart queen. This deal might appear in a text book on signalling; surely East would have led a singleton heart rather than broach diamonds had he had one. So after the ruff, a low heart would have been a clear message to lead a club. Perhaps the heart queen, as opposed to the king, ought to be sufficient to convey this message, in practice East tried another diamond and when West couldn't ruff, Declarer eventually got a club away on the heart ace for just two down (perfect defence is five off!), -300 but 5 IMPs to East-West.
Even when you have an easy lead following it up requires thought and those general rules will not always get you to the right answer.
Published Saturday 13.Feb.2010