Mix and Match by Ben Norton

A: ♠J. No doubt you wish partner could lead for you, since every suit appears fraught with danger with the strong hand on your right. Usually leading from J x or J x x in the trump suit is a bad idea, often catching partner’s Queen or exposing the layout, but here, with at least six trumps on your left, you can lead a trump in relative safety.

What’s more you should lead the ♠J, which will protect partner’s Q x x from time to time. Partner would have to hold something like ♠K 10 x over dummy’s Queen, or ♠K x beneath declarer’s A x x for your lead to blow a trick. Meanwhile you don’t risk leading into one of declarer’s tenaces in the side-suits.

Your result so far:

A: ♦K. Declarer must have the Spades locked up to suggest 3NT when your side has bid and raised the suit. Diamonds is a much more hopeful source of tricks. As to which Diamond to lead, a low one would be right when partner has A x, but that’s hardly likely since without a stopper it’s doubtful that East-West would be playing 3NT instead of 4♥. If you had an outside entry you might still consider a low Diamond, so as to unblock the suit when partner has J x, but here that would be of no use. Declarer would only need to hold up once to cut your hand adrift.

Your best chance is that partner has three Diamonds and they’re split 2-2 in the opposing hands. Therefore so as to prevent blowing a trick when partner doesn’t hold the ♦J, you should kick off with a top one. Partner will know to unblock any high spot cards he has to allow you the lead on the third round.

Your result so far:

A: ♠10. Leading either of your rounded-suit Aces could be fatal. Partner has implied Club length with his 4NT bid, but there’s no reason to think he holds the King. The ♦J is preferable, in that it’s equally dangerous but at least carries the upside that it may set up the third defensive trick.

It’s very unlikely that declarer will be able to establish his eleventh trick in either of your suits and partner probably has the Diamonds sewn up, so look for a safe lead. A trump is best, being very unlikely to blow a trick since East-West no doubt have a big fit to justify competing to the five-level.

Your result so far:

A: ♦6. To remove 2♥ West most likely has short Hearts and length in both minors. Therefore your task must be to prevent declarer scoring Heart ruffs. Who knows, you might find partner with the ♦A, then you can clear three rounds of trumps on the go. If not you won’t have given anything away, while still reducing dummy’s ruffing potential.

Your result so far:

A: ♠Q. There’s no real indication that you should be defending passively here, so lead one of your long suits. You require less from partner to set the Spades up than the Diamonds, leaving the final question of which Spade to lead. With the strong hand on your right firing out a low one rates to do more harm than good. After all you’re not concerned with unblocking the suit since you probably need partner to have length there at any rate.

An honor lead is better to potentially crush the Jack. Using the ♠K as asking for an unblock, as per the popular method, you must kick off with the Queen, which will collect an attitude signal from partner.

Your result so far: