The Norwalk Hour – 19 Nov 1966
Bridge Quiz
The happy knack of selecting brilliant opening leads is posseseed by very few players. But the ability to produce sound leads that do not give tricks away is almost equally probable. To score high on these hands, all West has to do is select a lead that looks reasonably safe.! Under the stress of the 1966 World Championship, none of, the players who actually held these hands was able to do so! Can you?
Answers To Bridge Quiz
a. Diamond jack. West’s hair trigger double was based on the correct deduction that NS had gone over board on inadequate 4-3 diamond suit. On that hypothesis, a trump lead ought to be—and would have been—best West actually led a club.
b. Spade six. Spades must be the suit that is least likely to give away a trick and the spot card will be better than the ten if East happens to have the lone jack. However, it happens that the slam is beaten on any lead, except a heart—which is what our player actually led.
c. Heart king. We told you to look for a safe lead. not a spectacular one!. The North American defender led a small spade — and gave declarer the slam.
d. Spade five. This is a close decision since a lead from the solid club sequence could conceivable be better than a spade! However, the standard lead from the longest unbid suit enabled Sam Kehela of Toronto to defeat the Italian contract. At the other table, the Italian West led the «safe» club jack and let Ira Rubin bring home the game.
e. Club deuce. We plead guilty to introducing a switcheroo inasmuch as the club lead is not exactly automatic. Yet it is the only lead to beat the contract. The Italian defender opened the spade four and allowed Lew Math of Los Angeles to bring home a game that was not bid at the other table.