Mix and Match 2 by Ben Norton

A: ♦4. Your opponents will be prepared for a Spade lead, as West’s 4♠ cue-bid suggests. It could be that by leading a Spade you give declarer the tempo to discard a Diamond loser. It’s nigh on impossible that you’ll be cashing two Diamond tricks, since East must have a control there to drive to a slam, but you could easily be taking one trick off the top. Then your ♣K, which is most likely sitting over declarer’s tenace, will probably provide the setting trick. In terms of which Diamond you lead, you don’t have to conform to standard leading agreements against a slam, because the information given is worth more to declarer than to your partner. Therefore you might as well lead the ♦4, this way declarer will find it more difficult to read your shape.

Your result so far:

A: ♠6. We’re always telling you to not lead trumps when declarer is known to hold a very long trump suit, especially when his partner hasn’t supported him. This is because you could so easily be picking up partner’s honor in the suit, or even giving declarer a free finesse if dummy is void. This hand is an exception. You have four trumps yourself and can expect seven to be on your right. What’s more you hold the Ten, so you will only do harm when partner has K x, A x or a singleton Ace, but even then on two of those layouts declarer could always pick the suit up for one loser himself, if he takes the right view.

On this hand leading any of your side suits is very dangerous. The ♥K would be the most appealing, but that could easily give away a trick, say if declarer has the Ace and dummy the Jack, or dummy the Ace and declarer the Jack and Ten. Seeing as West responded 1NT, not a suit, you don’t expect dummy to have a big source of tricks, so there’s no need to rush. Declarer will have a good hand for his bidding anyway, so you rate to take tricks with your side suit honors sitting over his honors.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. Even though East will have the ♥K for his 2NT bid, you need to kick off with the ♥A, holding such poor Spades. West will have a lot of minor suit cards on this auction. He most likely has five Diamonds to jump to slam, in which case he’ll hold longer Clubs. With room for only two cards in the majors on dummy, you need to try and cash your Heart trick before it goes away on declarer’s Spades. If the ♥A holds you can sit back and wait for a potential Club trick, which will be your only shot of beating this.

Your result so far:

A: ♦7. You’re unlikely to gain anything by leading your singleton Spade. East-West probably have nine trumps between them so your ♣Q x x is very likely to be worth a trick. Even if partner has the ♠A and returns the suit, you’ll be ruffing with a trump trick. By leading your singleton you’ll only be picking up the suit for declarer, who will have difficulty in doing so by himself, given that partner is marked with length over the dummy. The choice is between the red suits. The ♥J looks best because it’s from a sequence, but declarer has shown length there, so you’ll only be setting up one trick at best, and you could well be giving declarer a chance to discard dummy’s Diamond losers. If either of East-West had a good Diamond stopper, they would have bid No-trumps, so it’s very likely that you’re cashing some Diamond tricks off the top. The lead of your second-highest Diamond (second from a suit with no honor), is best.

Your result so far:

A: ♣7. You need to lead actively against this kind of auction. East has leapt to slam because he has a long side suit which he expects to cash. He probably has each suit controlled but that’s not guaranteed. He might just be putting pressure on you, hoping you’ll find the wrong lead. Your only side suit high card is in Clubs, so that suit presents by far the best chance of setting up a trick, or even cashing two quick tricks if partner has the Ace.

Your result so far: