Jim Callaghan, former British Prime Minister, said, "A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice."
He was talking about a country's leader, but bridge players also lead. And there are several books from experts about opening leads. One should almost never ignore this advice. In particular, falsecarding on opening lead is dangerous because it increases the possibility that partner will misdefend.
In this deal, look at the North and East hands. Your partner, West, is on lead against three no-trump. What would you do if he selects either the heart five or the heart nine?
After South opens one no-trump, North should respond three no-trump. His hand has no singleton and insufficient strength to think about a slam.
First, when West incorrectly leads the heart five, which promises at least one honor in the suit, you should win with the heart ace and return the heart jack, hoping partner has something like K-9-8-5-2 of hearts. Here, declarer takes at least 10 tricks.
However, when West leads the heart nine, you know that this is top of nothing, marking South with the king and queen of hearts. So, you should win with the heart ace and shift to the spade queen, hoping West has four to the ace. Here, this defense works beautifully.
But in this scenario, if South is clever, he will drop the queen or king under your heart ace at trick one, trying to look like someone who started with the doubleton king-queen. Then you might return the heart jack, which would be the only defense if West had the diamond ace instead of the spade ace.
He was talking about a country's leader, but bridge players also lead. And there are several books from experts about opening leads. One should almost never ignore this advice. In particular, falsecarding on opening lead is dangerous because it increases the possibility that partner will misdefend.
In this deal, look at the North and East hands. Your partner, West, is on lead against three no-trump. What would you do if he selects either the heart five or the heart nine?
After South opens one no-trump, North should respond three no-trump. His hand has no singleton and insufficient strength to think about a slam.
First, when West incorrectly leads the heart five, which promises at least one honor in the suit, you should win with the heart ace and return the heart jack, hoping partner has something like K-9-8-5-2 of hearts. Here, declarer takes at least 10 tricks.
However, when West leads the heart nine, you know that this is top of nothing, marking South with the king and queen of hearts. So, you should win with the heart ace and shift to the spade queen, hoping West has four to the ace. Here, this defense works beautifully.
But in this scenario, if South is clever, he will drop the queen or king under your heart ace at trick one, trying to look like someone who started with the doubleton king-queen. Then you might return the heart jack, which would be the only defense if West had the diamond ace instead of the spade ace.