Sunday, January 20, 2002		Bridge

Declarer wins with king
by Omar Sharif

WITH no good suit and little in the way of outside entries, it sometimes pays to try a short-suit lead against Three No-trumps, hoping to find partner at home.

With a choice of short suits it is usually a fair idea to try a major rather than a minor for the opponents will often have found their major suit fit (if it exists) but have ignored a fit in a minor.

That was the theory behind West’s lead on this week’s hand but his partner let him down.

At game all, South opened One No-trump and North raised to game. As his Diamonds did not look promising, West chose the eight of Hearts for his opening lead. The nine went to the ten and King but now declarer had an easy run. He drove out the Ace of Spades and had no trouble in coming to his ninth trick.

"We would have been in business if you had found a Club lead," remarked East. So they would but East had missed a neat opportunity himself.

Rather than hope that eventually his fourth Heart would come into its own, he should take his Ace of Hearts immediately and switch to the Queen of Clubs.

Declarer wins with King his but, when he tackles Spades, West takes his Ace and returns a Club for East to take three more tricks. Note that it has to be the Queen of Clubs from East — nothing else works.