Bermuda Bowl Bonanza by Ben Norton

A: ♥7. You’re clearly going to lead your five-card suit, the question is which card. The Ten is the normal lead from this interior sequence, which could serve to pick up the Jack in dummy, but here you have the vast majority of the defensive strength, and you can be pretty certain that you’ll have to attack Hearts from your side of the table every time, since partner won’t get in. With this in mind you do best to lead the Seven. If it turns out that the Jack is in dummy and partner has the Queen, such that leading the Ten would have picked up the suit for four tricks, you’ll probably still be alright taking only three tricks in the suit, with so many high cards sitting over declarer, the stronger of the opponents' hands.

Leading a low card gains when partner has a doubleton honor and declarer has length in the suit, say partner has Q x and declarer A J 8 x. Leading the Ten would mean that declarer has three stoppers, whereas he only has two if you lead a low one. Of course, leading the Seven could give away a cheap trick to the Eight in some scenarios, but if that’s the case you weren’t getting much joy from the suit anyway.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. Hardly an attractive choice of leads. A Spade from Q 9 x will blow the suit too often, especially considering that you have a short holding. A trump from K x x is not a good lead generally, since it gives a tempo away too often, and there’s no particular urgency to cut down on ruffs after this auction. So it’s down to the minors. Leading from Kings is not a great idea by and large, because declarer has the Queen too often, and there’s no sign that you need to be hasty to set up your tricks given you’re defending a part score.

The ♦A is your best bet. You have control of trumps so you’ll probably end up getting a ruff even when partner doesn’t have the ♦K. It’s true you could be giving away a trick, but that won’t happen too often because your Ace is in a short holding, so it will fall on the second round. In this way even if declarer has K x x leading the suit won’t technically cost when dummy has Q x x, for example, although it might do in practice. When all’s said and done the ♦A has the most upside coupled with a not greatly harrowing downside.

Your result so far:

A: ♥6. It’s not a good idea to lead either pointed suit, both having been bid by the opponents. If your five-card Spade suit were stronger and you had more outside entries then you might consider a Spade lead anyway, but here you don’t have enough for that to do any damage, and it could easily give a trick away. With this in mind it’s a choice between the rounded suits, and two poor doubletons.

You need to look to the auction to help you decide. There’s nothing to be inferred from partner’s silence, since he probably doesn’t have enough to overcall at the two-level no matter which suit he has, and bidding either 2♣ or 2♥ would have carried the same risk. The deciding factor is the opponents’ sequence, and what they haven’t bid. If West had four Hearts he would have either responded 1♥ with 4/4 in the majors, or he would have looked for a major suit fit over 1NT with five Spades and four Hearts, perhaps via a Check-back Stayman-style bid. He didn’t so dummy won’t have four Hearts, and declarer can’t have five Hearts on the auction either. Therefore partner must have at least four Hearts, probably five. The same can’t be said about Clubs, because the opponents would willingly suppress a minor suit fit, but not a major suit fit.

Your result so far:

A: ♣Q. East has shown Hearts and West must have four Spades to bother going through Stayman, so neither major suit looks appealing, although each could still work. A Spade could be a good passive option and a Heart (a low one) could work if partner has an honor, seeing as you’re holding strength behind declarer’s tenace. However, a lot of the time you’d just be giving declarer a cheap trick with the ♥J, and a Spade could give away a tempo or even trap partner’s honor.

This isn’t the sort of auction to lead passively against, since West raised directly to game, which could be based on much stronger hands than a minimum game raise. It would be completely different had he invited game, essentially limiting his hand, then a passive lead would be in order. Therefore you should scorn the passive looking pointed suit leads in favor of an active Heart or Club. If Hearts is the suit you need to attack then you can probably afford to do it later, finding partner’s honor there, since you need more tricks than just the ones you can take in Hearts in order to defeat the contract.

On the other hand, if a Club is right, in that it hits partner with strength there, now might be your last chance. You could even be cashing five tricks off the top. If a Club lead doesn’t go as hoped, at least you’ll have established a trick, although you could also have given one away when declarer has the Ace and dummy the Jack, but putting greater emphasis on the upside is a big part of leading aggressively. It could be argued that a Club lead is less attractive because partner didn't Double 2♣ for the lead. This isn't so, since partner could hardly request a Club lead looking at only ♣A x x x x, and besides, some play a Double of Stayman as conventional.

Most partnerships have a ‘strong’ honor lead against No-trumps, that asks partner to unblock an honor. Here that’s the King, so lead the Queen to get an attitude signal from partner (he knows you could have the King). You don’t want him unblocking the Jack from J x x!

Your result so far:

A: ♥7. Anything else would be too speculative. You have the stronger defensive hand yet you don’t have a long suit that you can hope to set up. It would be unwise to search for partner’s long suit, since even if you can set it up he probably won’t have an entry to cash his tricks. You’ll just end giving a trick away or doing declarer’s work for him. After invitational sequences it pays to lead passively, to give nothing away. Your opponents only have the bare minimum required for game, so if you don’t give them anything it will be a touch-and-go affair.

A Diamond from J x x will pick up partner’s Queen too often, and a Club from K Q doubleton will give away your holding when declarer has the Ace, and otherwise would perhaps have taken two finesses into you. A Spade lead from the Ace will gift declarer a trick with his stray honor too often, so a passive Heart it is. Even though Hearts is dummy’s suit, he won’t have five of them himself else he would have investigated a fit there, and you won’t often be picking up the suit for declarer. Who knows, you have enough outside strength that you might even end up establishing a long Heart trick for yourself if you keep plugging away at the suit.

Your result so far: