Page 9 - Leads Against Notrump

9
The Oldest Maxim
NORTH
WEST EAST
SOUTH
PASS
1NT PASS
3NT
PASS PASS
D
Dealer: SOUTH ♠Q 10 8 Contract: 3NT
♥K J 4 Declarer : SOUTH
♦J 10 4 3
♣K 9 5
♠K 9 7 4 3 ♠A 6 5
♥9 7 6 3 2 ♥10 8
♦8 ♦A 9 6 2
♣J 4 ♣Q 10 7 3
♠J 2
♥A Q 5
♦K Q 7 5
♣A 8 6 2
With two fve-card suits, West chooses the stronger, spades,
and leads the fourth highest card, the ♠4. The ♠8 is played from
dummy, East wins the ♠A, and declarer follows with the ♠2. East
returns the ♠6, top of the remaining doubleton,3 and declarer
plays the ♠J. West can see that declarer is always entitled to a
spade trick because the ♠Q-10 are still in the dummy.
Here it is vital for West to take the losses early and keep the
♠K with the long spade suit until the suit is established. West
lets declarer win the second spade trick. Declarer doesn’t have
enough tricks without promoting winners in diamonds, but
when declarer leads a diamond, East wins the ♦A and returns
the ♠5. West wins the carefully preserved ♠K and takes two
more spade tricks to defeat the contract.
3 When returning partner’s suit, the guideline is to lead the top of two remaining cards
and low from three remaining cards.