Sunday, May 12, 2002		Bridge

When a ‘top of nothing’ lead would have been right
by Omar Sharif

WHAT do you lead from three low cards, such as 762 in an unbid suit? Fashions change.

‘Top of nothing’ used to be universal; MUD (Middle, Up, Down) had a vogue; and now a number of pairs are trying out an earlier American idea of leading low.

All these methods have their advantages (if you are dealt the right hand) but this week’s deal proved a success for the modernists.

South opened One Club and North responded One Diamond. East’s failure to overcall was, to my mind, inexplicable and South’s rebid of One No-trump was raised to game. This left West with an awkward lead.With little enthusiasm for the suits bid by his opponents and faithful to his modern ideas, West selected H2 for his opening salvo.

Dummy played low and, not to be outdone in trickiness, East won with the King and switched to the King of Spades.

After holding off for two rounds declarer won the third Spade and, looking at eight certain tricks, decided to take the "marked" finesse in Hearts.

Unlucky! East produced a completely unexpected HJ and two more Spade tricks.

Of course, if East had won the first Heart with the Jack, declarer might still have gone wrong — by trying a second Heart finesse rather than playing on Diamonds.

Certainly the actual defence left South with real problems; while if West had made the more orthodox ‘top of nothing’ lead, then declarer would surely have got things right by relying on the diamond finesse.