European Challenge 2 by Ben Norton

A: ♦2. You have the vast majority of the defensive strength, so usually you would lead passively without a clear line of offense. Unfortunately it looks like your red suit honors are poorly placed, beneath the length in dummy, so you need to be active and look to establish tricks, and Diamonds is your best source.

When leading one of the opponents long suits against No-trumps, its often best to kick off with a small one, even if you have a sequence. Here there can be little point in leading the ♦Q, since dummy has shown length in the suit. Instead lead the Two. This will unblock the suit when partner has 10 x, and it may even put declarer on the horns of a nasty dilemma when partner has the Nine over K 10 8 x in dummy. This will also pave the way for taking three Diamond tricks when declarer has the King and partner a doubleton, assuming he can get on lead, whereas leading the ♦Q would surrender a trick. The Queen lead will only be necessary when partner has ♦9 x x and declarer 10 x. Even then the suit will be blocked after leading the Queen. The ♦2 lead rates to be more effective.

Your result so far:

A: ♥4. Declarer has denied a Heart control on the auction, so there isn’t much danger in underleading your ♥A, and you could gain a great deal. Knowing dummy has a source of tricks in Clubs and your Queen is sitting under them, you need to be aggressive and try to come to three quick tricks, before declarer takes some discards. The advantage in leading a low Heart rather than the Ace is that declarer might have a King-Jack guess (if he has the King it can only be in dummy, otherwise he would have bid 4♥), which he rates to get wrong if you underlead your Ace.

You might argue that it’s not necessary to lead Hearts at all, since you need another trick from partner to beat this. That isn’t so. Partner could have a slow trump trick, then declarer would still have time to get his Clubs going for discards. Plus even if partner does have the ♠A, you’ll no longer be able to give declarer a Heart guess if he has one, since you won’t get on lead again to switch to a low Heart. Don’t worry about partner mis-interpreting your lead and refusing to play the King from a holding like K 9 x (x) when Q x is in the dummy. He too knows that declarer has denied a Heart control, and will whack on the King in full confidence.

Your result so far:

A: ♦5. Your Spade holding is bad news, sitting behind declarer’s length, since any finesses he takes in the suit will be working. This indicates an active defense is in order, so you should kick off with a Diamond, hoping to promote a trick or two. It would be too risky to try the ♣A, since declarer could easily have the King, where a lead from partner could have picked up the entire suit.

Your result so far:

A: ♠7. You want to set up a trick before your Ace is knocked out. West must have every side suit controlled so you won’t be cashing two Heart tricks. West is likely to have a trick source in Diamonds, so you need to look to Spades for the setting trick. It’s essential that you lead the ♠7, showing a poor suit. If it turns out that partner has the ♠A then he’ll need to know to switch to a Heart rather than continue Spades, placing you with the King.

Your result so far:

A: ♥8. Declarer probably has values in diamonds, both from his failure to co-operate in a slam try and partner’s failure to Double 4♦ for the lead. As such there’s a danger that declarer will get dummy’s losers away on his Diamonds, especially seeing as you hold nothing in the suit. Your goal is to get partner on lead so he can switch to a Club through declarer. This way you might be able to pick up four quick tricks.

You need to lead a Heart in the hope that partner will win and switch to Clubs. To achieve this you should lead the Eight to deny an honor. Then partner will see no reason to continue Hearts (he will hardly play you for a doubleton, since dummy’s trumps will likely be very good). Even if partner doesn’t have the ♥A, you may still be setting up a trick for him.

Your result so far: