Testing Teams by Ben Norton

A: ♠4. It’s between the majors, and while a Heart lead could work wonders if you hit partner with the Ace or J x x with the opponents’ Ace in a short holding, three-card support makes your chances of setting the Spades up much better.

The main problem is that you don’t have any outside entries to hand, so by attacking Hearts you’d be placing all your chips on partner having a high card in the suit. What’s more, you’d need to lead a low one to avoid blocking the suit when partner has A x, and in so doing you might gift declarer a cheap trick with the Jack.

Partner won’t be messing around at unfavorable vulnerability, so his Spades will be of good quality. The weak jump overcall, although done for primarily obstructive reasons, should also suggest you lead partner’s suit. Kick off with the ♠4 to give partner a count of the suit. He’s allowed to be stronger for his bid when you’re a Passed hand, so he could easily have an outside entry once the Spades have been set up.

Declarer’s jump to 3NT isn’t a good sign, suggesting a double stopper usually, but he can be stuck for a bid some of the time, forced to try the most likely game with an honor-doubleton holding.

Your result so far:

A: ♦2. A red-suit lead is indicated, and although one strives to lead an unbid major over a minor, since the enemy may have supressed a minor-suit fit but not usually a major, the Diamond holding is much more attractive to lead from here.

You need much less from partner for a Diamond to set the suit up. As little as one honor opposite may be enough in Diamonds, say ♦K x x x, while in Hearts you’d likely need two honors, perhaps ♥A Q x x. In addition to the offensive factor, broaching a suit from J x x x rates to give a trick away more often than from Q 10 x x. Thinking about the play of the hand, if you lead a Heart and declarer finds out your holding there he might reason that you have stray honors in the other suits to justify opening from a poor holding. There would be no such inference available after a Diamond lead though.

In addition to this, on the auction you can expect dummy to have at most three Hearts, but declarer could easily have four. However, it’s unlikely he has four Diamonds given the opening structure of Better Minor. Most open 1♦ with 4/4 shape in the minors, so unless East has five Clubs he won’t have four Diamonds. Try the ♦2.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. In general, you should look to lead passively against 1NT. It’s rarely a race, with the power evenly balanced between the two sides, but you don’t have an appealing choice here. The rounded-suits are out, since it’s too risky to lead from such a suit into a strong No-trump without good reason, and while a Spade could work it would be a shot in the dark.

Ace-King combinations make for good leads, enabling you to get a look at dummy and a signal from partner to shed some light on the hand. The ♦A could certainly be wrong, perhaps conceding a tempo or giving declarer a trick when he holds the Queen and Jack, but most of the time it will only aid the defense.

Your result so far:

A: ♥6. It’s a close decision between a passive Heart and an active Spade lead. Usually when the opponents bid straight to game, spurning an invitational sequence, you should adopt an active defense, since declarer might have extra values at his disposal, making it likely that he’ll make his contract if left to his own devices. However, West Passed originally, so this doesn’t apply. He’ll have a minimum raise to game. You also know he has length in a major, or perhaps both, so the danger attached to opening up one of those suits is enhanced.

A Spade could set the suit up when partner has only one honor. However, given your relative weakness you can’t expect to get the lead again even if you can set them up, for declarer will surely hold up to break communications when he can. Meanwhile, a Spade could blow the whole suit. You’d lead a small one from Q J 7 4, so as to not crash an honor in partner’s hand or block the suit, but then declarer might score a trick with the ten.

A Heart is best. It’s unlikely to give anything away and could even hit partner’s long suit. You might lead the nine to make the message clear to partner that you have nothing there, which could also gain on some technical layouts, for example when dummy has K 7 x x, partner A J 10 x and declarer Q 8 doubleton, but it could also confuse partner as to your length. Partner will be able to read the six just as well, so stick to the conventional second-highest from a poor suit.

Your result so far:

A: ♥3. Yes, just lead partner’s suit! It’s likely that declarer has the ♥K and your lead will present him with a trick which may be the ninth, but you can expect to have the vast majority of the defensive strength, so partner will never get in to play the suit from his side. Undoubtedly you’ll need to play Hearts at some stage anyway, either because you’ll run out of slow stoppers in the other suits or you’ll get end-played, so kick off with one now to establish some tricks for the defense.

Partner’s one-level overcall at favorable vulnerability may be based on nothing more than a fair suit for you to lead. Thus it could be that declarer has only a partial stopper such as Q x and is either trying to lead you astray or didn’t have another bid to make. In this case you can expect to cash the first five tricks. Alternatively, perhaps dummy has a long Club suit and your side has one stopper there. Then a Heart will be necessary to keep you a tempo ahead.

Of course, you'll lead the ♥3, not the Ace, which could give up control of the suit, make partner think you have a doubleton or allow declarer to take a trick holding Q x x.

There’s yet another reason to lead a Heart – to keep partner happy.

Your result so far: