Problem

The Auction:

You are South on this week`s defensive problem defending against 4♠. West declared 4♠ after an uncontested auction. After a bit of consideration you doubled. Plan your defense. What are you going to lead?

Solution

You don`t want to underlead either of your kings, so you lead the ♣J (top of solid sequence) to dummy`s ace (trick 1).

Both the ♥A and ♦AQ are on the table, so you fear for your kings’ fate and hope North holds some additional honors.

The declarer leads a small spade from dummy and as North discards a diamond,plays the ♠K – you win the trick with the ♠A (trick 2) and lead clubs again. East takes the trick with the ♣K (trick 3), leads the ♣8 and ruffs in dummy (trick 4). Next the opponent leads the ♦A from dummy`s hand (trick 5); leads a small diamond from dummy and ruffs (trick 6).

Then East leads clubs again. You ruff with the ♠8, which cannot be overruffed as there are only smaller spades on the table; East discards the ♦Q (trick 7). The opponent does not have any diamonds left, so you cannot lead diamonds – not to offer the possibility to discard. You lead the ♥9, East plays a small heart from dummy`s hand so North wins this trick with the ♥Q (trick 8) and leads a small heart to dummy`s ace (trick 9).

East leads a small spade from dummy`s hand, takes the trick with the ♠Q (trick 10) and leads spades again. You win the trick with the ♠J (trick 11) and lead a small diamond. East ruffs (trick 12) and wins the last trick with the ♥J (trick 13).

The opponents had nine spades, but the split was unfortunate for them – 4-0, which has only a 10 % chance of occurring. Also you – as the LHO of East – held the ♠AJ98 making it extremely difficult for East to catch your spades.

So you double was justified as you could take three tricks with spades; the fourth trick was won in hearts.

Could it have been have been played otherwise? You could not have led diamonds, as the declarer would have got an additional trick in diamonds this way – offering the possibility to discard.

If you would have led hearts, the outcome would have been the same – your side would have won three tricks with spades and one in hearts.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this deal is 3♠ by West (East).