Opening Lead for Intermediates 3 by Andy Hung

A: ♣3.

Don't forget to use the auction to help you decide on your opening lead, they can be quite useful. Here, West (dummy) has shown a strong hand with long Diamonds. You can't afford to make a passive lead of a trump or a Diamond otherwise you can foresee what declarer is going to do. He will draw trumps and utilize dummy's Diamonds for discards. In order to counter this, you must lead aggressively. When there's a long suit in dummy that can be used for discards, think aggression. Here, the ♣3 is the most aggressive lead. Set up or take your tricks before they disappear!

Your result so far:

A: ♦4.

Listen to the auction. After your opponents found a Club fit, why didn't they land in 3NT? It looks like West did show his Heart values, and East emphasized his Spades with the 3♠ bid. From this auction, it looks like neither opponent wanted to bid 3NT because of their weakness in Diamonds! You must therefore resist the temptation of the top-of-a-sequence lead of the ♥Q and pull out the ♦4 card. Take your Diamond tricks before your opponents can discard them on either the Hearts or the Clubs.

Your result so far:

A: ♣3.

"Lead partner's suit" is one advice that will be right more often than not. However, these guidelines always have exceptions. Although our partner did open the bidding with 1♥, not only do we have a singleton Club, but we also have trump control with the ♠K (the ♠A is likely to be with East). It's nice to have that trump control because if partner doesn't have the ♣A to win the lead and give us a ruff, then at least the opponents won't be able to draw out all of our trumps. We'll be able to win the ♠K on the second round, get partner in (with, say, a Heart) to give us our ruff.

Your result so far:

A: ♦3.

It's never attractive to lead away from Jxx against a No-trump contract, but what are our alternatives? The opponents have bid Hearts, Spades, and Clubs, so our partner's strength quite likely lies within the Diamonds. Note that a Spade lead is not safe at all, despite that the lead might be "through strength". Imagine if dummy has ♠AKJT4. Now a Spade lead will give declarer a crucial tempo, being able to establish the Spades.

Your result so far:

A: ♠9.

Your weak hand indicates that it is partner who has the partnership's strength. He did overcall 1♠ too so there's no reason not to lead a Spade.

Declarer did bid 1NT that's right, but who says declarer must have two Spade stoppers? He might only have one and now a Spade lead will knock out that stopper.

Your result so far: