Thinking Bridge
By Eddie Kantar
kantarbridge.com
Consider all the angles with Eddie on this deal.
| West | North | East | South |
| 2NT | |||
| Pass | 3♣ | Pass | 3♦ |
| Pass | 6NT | All Pass |
Opening lead: ♣J
Bidding commentary: 6NT is a normal contract with 33 HCP between two balanced hands. Notice that 6NT has 11 top tricks, but 6♦ is cold. It’s not easy to uncover a 4–4 minor suit fit after a 1NT or 2NT opening bid.
Lead Commentary: Leading against 6NT is not like leading against 3NT. When the opponents land in 3NT, they figure to have about 25–26 HCP. Here, West has 6 HCP, so if 3NT is the final contract, East figures to have about 8–9 HCP, hopefully with a spade honor or two. However, when the opponents land in 6NT, figure them for about 33 HCP. In this case, as West, you can figure East for about one point! A spade lead is no longer attractive. When leading against 6NT holding most or all of the missing high-card strength and lacking a perfect sequence, lead passively; the ♣J stands out.
Play Commentary: As South, with 11 top tricks, you have two chances for an extra trick: hearts splitting 3–3 or the spade finesse working. In order to test both, attack hearts, the longer combined suit, first. Duck a heart at trick two, a technique that allows you to retain control of the suit. Declarer wins the likely club return from West, runs the diamonds, cashes the ♠A and tests hearts. If hearts are 3–3, there are 12 tricks. If not, there is always the spade finesse to fall back on.
Look at these suit combinations:
he normal way to develop three tricks in the suit is to duck the first round followed by cashing the high honor from the short side, and then over to the high honor in the long hand. If the suit does not break 3–3, declarer retains the lead and is still in control.
Eddie Kantar (1932–2022) was an accomplished player with two world championships and 17 NABC titles. Kantar is probably best known as a teacher and author of over 35 bridge books. He wrote his first article for The Bridge World in 1954 and was a longtime contributor to the ACBL’s Bridge Bulletin.
