I HAVE nothing much to report as the Bridge Club goes into its summer slumber after the recent STAC weeks.I really like Matt Granovetter’s writing and this week’s hand came from him via the OK Bridge <$>newsletter. Here is the hand with Matt’s narrative.

“Do you ever get mad at yourself after you make an opening lead? I get mad at myself all the time — especially the way I lead and especially when I lead dummy’s best suit.

Consider this hand, which comes from a practice game last month. I picked up the West cards and heard my opps bid swiftly to a slam in spades:

Dealer: East

Vulnerable: BothNorth

[spade]10 4 3

[heart]A K J 10 9 3

[diamond]6 5 3

[club]>

West East<$>

[spade]Q 2 [spade]K 8 5

[heart]6 4 [heart]7 5 2

[diamond]K J 10 8 4 2 [diamond]7

[club]K 6 2 [club]9 8 7 5 4 3

South

[spade]A J 9 7 6

[heart]Q 8

[diamond]A Q 9

[club]A Q B>

West North East South

— — Pass 1[spade]

Pass 4[spade] Pass 4NT

Pass 5[diamond] Pass 6[spade]

All PassThat four spade bid by North is weird, but I admit his hand does not fall into any clear category. He has a nice heart suit, but he has spade support as well, and too much for a simple raise to two spades. He decided to make life easy by jumping to four spades, and no doubt he was happy to have me on lead.

His partner, however, was overly enthusiastic and continued to slam via Blackwood. South should play partner for five spades to the king-queen and a singleton, so a pass of four spades is a better call.

Nonetheless, there they were in six spades and I was shaking my head . . . what to lead, what to lead . . .?

I eliminated spades, of course, but then considered . . . dummy would hold five spades and perhaps there was a heart suit there, too. Maybe we needed to cash two fast tricks. Could my partner hold a minor-suit ace, and if so, which one?

Then I rejected this line of thought. South, who had asked for aces over four spades, was unlikely to move past game missing two aces, since a four spades bidder would usually hold no aces. But what about giving my partner a diamond ruff? I had six diamonds — partner could hold shortness there . . .

I chickened out and led a safe heart. When dummy hit, I said to myself, ‘You are sooo chicken — you’ve done it again. You should have led a diamond, you fool!’

Declarer won the ace of hearts as partner played the 2 and South the queen. Next came a spade to the jack and my queen. Was it too late to give my partner a diamond ruff?

No, she couldn’t be void; she probably would have doubled five diamonds.

Then I realised that if the heart deuce was a count card, I should continue hearts, taking out declarer’s second heart. Declarer won the second heart lead in dummy, led a spade to the 9, played the ace of clubs, and then the 10 of clubs, which I covered. Declarer ruffed in dummy and cashed a heart, throwing a diamond.

Well, at this point declarer needed a diamond finesse to make the slam. But I could win the king and give my partner a diamond ruff after all, for down two!

Bridge can be mysterious — you make the one lead you think is hopeless and it turns out to be the best lead. After a diamond lead, sure, we beat the slam one trick by my giving partner a diamond ruff — but the heart lead beat it two tricks!

Everyone congratulated me on my stunning lead and I accepted the kudos, knowing all along that I had led the darn thing only because I was chicken.”

David Ezekiel: Notice the importance of East being disciplined and giving count in hearts at trick one.