Mix and Match by Ben Norton

A: ♦3. This is really just a matter of eliminating the worst possibilities. The singleton ♠Q is too dangerous, as is leading away from the ♥A. A Club is a possibility, although partner didn’t support your suit, making it more likely that your lead will yield a trick. The best shot is a Diamond. Your holding is sufficiently short that even if you do give away a quick trick, you may not have blown the whole suit, while a Diamond has good offensive potential as well.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. Leading a singleton Ace in an opponent’s side-suit is usually not a good idea, because it either gives away a tempo or just lets declarer off the hook. After all, your Ace might take one of his honors. The risk isn’t quite as great here, since you expect the strength to be in dummy. Also, since you have so little in the way of high cards, you can expect partner to have an entry to give you a ruff, and he may well have another trick on the side. Playing for Diamond ruffs is certainly your best chance.

Your result so far:

A: ♠5. It’s not usually attractive to broach an opponent’s suit, especially when you have length underneath the bidder, but here a Spade lead may well be lucrative. Your holding is sufficiently good that if partner has a singleton honor you can establish two tricks in the suit. Of course, you can expect partner to have a singleton Spade most of the time since East didn’t convert to 4♠.

Even if there’s no offensive potential in Spades, it may well be a safe lead, as long as you choose a small one. The ♠8 in partner’s hand will be enough, and sometimes even a low card, since declarer might win trick one with an honor in dummy or fail to insert the eight when partner has the seven.

Leading the ♠J could crash partner’s honor and set up a deep finesse position for declarer. At any rate, given your poor spot-cards, the four and five, he’ll probably be able to set up a trick by force even if partner follows small. A Heart lead won’t do any good because partner didn’t Double 2♥ for the lead, and a Diamond from A Q x would just be too risky. For one you might need to lead an honor to unblock the suit, which is very dangerous. The ♣10 would be even more futile, often blowing the entire suit while having very little to gain.

Your result so far:

A: ♦3. Yes, a Spade lead is safest, but West has proclaimed possession of a source of tricks in Clubs, which will be easily established given your holding in the suit, so it’s time to be active. You could lead a Spade with the intention of giving partner the lead so he can switch to a Diamond, but you can expect there to be four Hearts and six Clubs in dummy, to go with at most one Spade and therefore two Diamonds. Thus, even if partner produces the ♠A and shifts to a Diamond, declarer might be able to get dummy’s Diamond away on the ♠K.

A Diamond is a better shot. You stand to set up a trick when partner has the Queen or to just cash three quick tricks when he has the Ace.

Your result so far:

A: ♣2. You don’t want to lead aggressively with such a strong hand on your right, because you’d probably be playing into a tenace. In this way, a red-suit lead is out. So is a Spade, knowing declarer has length there. Three-small is usually a good passive choice, but with the enemy strength so lopsided you can expect dummy to be almost bereft of entries, so leading a Spade may in effect give declarer an extra entry to dummy to pick up partner’s honors in the suit.

A Club is best, and the two at that. The ten might seem like the normal card, but the purpose of that is to pick up the Jack in dummy, so declarer can’t run the lead around to his eight (picture dummy with A J x, partner with Q x x and declarer with K 8 x). That’s unlikely be the layout here, but even if it is you’d need partner to hold the seven to avoid giving away a trick. If you had the seven yourself, leading the ten would be worth it, because you could surround declarer’s eight, but with such weak spot-cards a low one is superior. After all, you wouldn’t want to crash one of partner’s honors on the ten.

Your result so far: