Seems like everyone wants to make the New York Times

Last night in the Canadian Team Trials a classic situation arose where the opening leader against six spades had an eight card heart suit of AKQJ10954 and a side void, and just about everyone holding those cards in that situation made the opening lead of the heart 4! Results varied somewhat though.

Dealer: south Vul: both		North
		♠	J75
		♥	7
		♦	K1093
		♣	AQ732
West				East
♠	106			♠	8
♥	AKQJ10954			♥	832
♦	void			♦	87542
♣	864			♣	KJ95
		South
		♠	AKQ9432
		♥	6
		♦	AQJ6
		♣	10

In several matches, the result of +100 for EW was a push. Both tables bid up to 6 spades on a highly competitive auction; both wests led their 8th best heart, and partner won the heart eight; looked around for a while, and gave west a diamond ruff for down 1.

Some wests got creative in the bidding to optimize their chances of success. Michael Roche heard one spade on his right; four hearts by him; four spades from his LHO. East decided to lead direct and bid five clubs! South bid five diamonds, and Michael bid six diamonds ! When the opponents then bid six spades, all passed, and he ignored his partner John Rayner’s five club call and of course led the heart four for down 1.

In these situations, time stands still for a few seconds as you see the stiff seven in dummy and await third hand’s play with major league trepidation.

One player is still waiting, as his partner decided to give count (!) on the opening lead and carefully played the deuce of hearts under dummy’s seven. Clearly this hand is a resounding endorsement of upside down signals as this could never happen to such players, unless they chose to play a miserly heart three !

Another west decided to seek fame a different way by overcalling (psyching) two diamonds over south’s two club opening bid ! He maintains to this minute he had much going for him. And he did, except when the opponents bid up to six spades and his partner won the heart eight at trick one – he was completely confused by this play and must have decided declarer had suffered a brain cramp or something. So he shifted to a non diamond, and six spades came home!

In our match against the tough Thurston team, the hand was far less titillating. Keith bid four hearts over south’s one spade. East bid four spades; I bid five hearts; south bid six spades, and Keith took out insurance with a seven heart bid. This only went down two for -500 when the defense did not find their club ruff.

At the other table, south bid five spades over east’s five hearts, and played it there. Plus 680 resulted in a quiet five imp gain for our side.

I know I will hear more stories about this hand today, and I will post the more interesting ones later on. But in the meantime, the lesson for all you kids reading this is very simple – THIRD HAND HIGH !