The Daily Gazette – Oct 31, 1999
Zia Mahmood, one of the world’s great players postulated:
If a weak two-bidder leads an unbid suit, it is a singleton. If the preemptor leads the long suit, the singleton is probably in trumps.
Declarer put that principle to good use to land an aggressively bid slam. Which trick did South lose?
After West’s weak two-spade opening bid was pass round to South the jump to five clubs can hardly be faulted. To bid anything less than a small slam with the North hand would then be pusillanimous in the extreme.
West led the ten of diamonds and, in keeping with Zia’s theory, declarer presumed that the lead was a singleton. That suggested that both hearts and clubs would behave reasonably. Declarer developed a plan that catered to the opening bidder having either a five- or more likely six-card suit.
Declarer played low from dummy at trick one and ruffed in hand. The ace of trumps was cashed, followed by the ace of spades and a spade ruffed with the queen as East discarded a diamond. Declarer returned to hand with the king of hearts and drew trumps, discarding two diamonds from the table. East parting with another diamond.
The groundwork to assure the contract was now complete. Declarer exited with a low heart and finessed the board’s ten. In with the queen of hearts. East’s forced return of red suit allowed declarer to discard the three remaining spades in hand on dummy’s red-suit winners. Had the finesse won, declarer would have discarded two spades on dummy’s area and lost only one spade trick.