What is your lead?
IMPs; Dealer North. East-West vulnerable.
As East. You hold : ♠ 1097432 ♥ 972 ♦ 8 ♣ 762
The auction :
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♦ | Pass | 2♦ | |
| DBL | 4NT | Pass | 5♥ |
| Pass | 5NT | Pass | 6♥ |
| Pass | 7♦ | All Pass |
2 ♦ – Forcing.
5 ♥ – 2 key cards in diamond.
6 ♥ – King of hearts.
What is your lead?
You may want to make up your mind before reading on.
This is the deal.
Click Next to see what happened at the table.
Did you find a black suit lead?
A red suit lead set up a squeeze against West.
This is the 4 card ending after North cashed the A and King of hearts and run all but one diamond.
Trick 9. North plays the diamond seven, East discards spade seven, South heart eight, and squeezes West between spades and clubs.
Trick 10. North cashes the ace of whichever black suit West had discarded and claims.
| Dealer: North Vul: E-W |
North ♠ A ♥ ♦ 7 ♣ 108 |
|
| West ♠ KQ ♥ ♦ ♣ KQ |
 |
East ♠ 1097 ♥ 9 ♦ ♣ |
| South ♠ J5 ♥ 8 ♦ ♣ A |
A black suit lead set up a winner immediately for West. East can then keep all three hearts to breaks up the double squeeze!
An interesting point in the auction. West made a good final pass, tried to ask for a non heart lead.
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Bridge-related
West had two chances to double 5H and he didn’t. Hence, NS have the two top hearts. So, a heart lead is out.
Since it appears that there are only 3 spades out, it may be a relatively safe lead. A club lead is more aggressive since you need to find two honors with West, but this is likely since there is no way that he has his (vulnerable) double if he doesn’t have two club honors.
Thanks Lak,
Your analysis is right on the money.