Mix and Match 7 by Ben Norton

A: ♥7. It’s best to lead passively against 1NT, even more so when you don’t have an attractive long suit to lead from. You hardly want to lead either of the opponents’ suits and a Spade from A x x will often give away a trick when declarer has a stray honor. When leading passively, x x x is a good choice. It won’t give declarer anything that he couldn’t have taken for himself. Lead second-highest from a suit without an honor.

Your result so far:

A: ♦2. It looks like everything will be breaking relatively well for declarer, and your Spade holding behind his long suit doesn’t bode well for the defense, since any finesses he takes will work. Therefore you need to lead actively, and a Diamond, hoping to find partner with some strength there, is your best shot. Besides, the opponents have shown all of the other suits.

Your result so far:

A: ♣8. It’s a choice between the minor suits and once again you don’t have any nasty surprises for declarer, so you need to lead aggressively. You hope to find partner with length and strength in a minor, and to that end you should kick off with a Club, because you have the Queen to support partner’s honors. If it turns out that partner has Diamonds then your x x x probably wouldn’t have been enough to help partner establish the suit anyway.

Your result so far:

A: ♦2. A horrible selection of leads, especially since you can’t expect partner to have a great deal. However, 3♥ was pre-emptive so East has the strength, and to that end you don’t want to lead away from one of your black suit honors. If you had a trump then leading the ♣A would be a good shot, since there’d be the potential upside of taking a ruff, but with a void in Hearts it’s more likely to go wrong than right. You should lead a Diamond, since it’s unlikely that you’ll give anything away given you have eight of them. But the best Diamond to lead is the Two, suit preference in case partner can ruff the first one. Then he’ll know which black suit you have a quick entry in, to give him another ruff.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. Even though it’s dummy’s suit, a top Diamond lead is still best. It would be unwise to guess to lead from A x x in either of the other side suits, since that could so easily blow a trick, and a trump from J x x will just help declarer to pick up partner’s holding. By leading the ♦A you’ll get to have a look at dummy, and partner’s signal.

Your result so far: