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Leading Lady

By Maureen Dennison

One of the many successes for that fine Polish pairing of Marek Szymanowski and Krzysztof Martens was at Deauville where they won the three session pairs with three over 60% sessions. This scored well for them when Martens found an imaginative lead.

Dealer South. Game all.

			-
			K Q J 10 9
			6 4
			A 9 6 5 4 3
	Martens	N W E S			Szymanowski
	K J 9 8 6 5 3				4
	A 6				8 7 3 2
	A 7				Q J 8 3 2
	Q 2				J 8 7
			A Q 10 7 2
			6 4
			K 10 9 8
			K 10

South generally opened 1 and finished in 3NT, North showing clubs and hearts on the way. It is one of those hands were the opening leader is end-played at trick 1! Ace and another diamond seems an option. Declarer will take, play K and another and, when the queen appears, duck.
Now he has 10 or 11 tricks for the taking. Martens found the lead of the Q which held declarer to nine tricks. If declarer ducks, the next club puts him in the wrong hand and if he rises communications are cut. Though ace and another heart would have the same effect. -600 gave an 80% which shows how difficult it was to find either lead.