Mix and Match by Ben Norton

A: ♠9. East must have at least eight minor-suit cards on the auction, since he didn’t support Hearts and failed to mention the Spade suit. Therefore, a Club or Diamond lead would be too dangerous, not to mention it would be a guess as to which one to open.

In this way, a Spade is best. Partner rates to have length there, sitting over dummy. All that’s left is the question of which card. The two could block the suit, or give up a trick by force if declarer has a doubleton. To this end, you should opt for the ♠9. Picture partner with A J 7 x over dummy’s Q 10 x x. The nine would be needed to pin declarer's 8 x.

Your result so far:

A: ♦10. Dummy’s known to have short Clubs, so you want to limit the enemy ruffing potential, thereby protecting your Club honors. The ♦10 is best, since you have the seven to back up your sequence.

Your result so far:

A: ♣10. Partner has made a Lightner Double, requesting an unusual lead. He’ll usually have a void when doubling a suit contract, but as dummy has short Hearts that can’t really be the case here. He probably has two cashing tricks in one of the minors, but which one?

There’s no way to tell, but if he has Diamonds it’s unlikely that his winners will go away, since you have only a singleton there. Conversely, declarer might be able to discard his Club losers on the Diamond suit. Therefore, you should try the ♣10.

Your result so far:

A: ♣Q. A difficult one this. A top Diamond lead is intuitive, but not necessarily correct. After all, with such length in the suit you can’t expect to cash a great deal of tricks, even if the lead is successful. You can’t afford to defend passively, as dummy could easily have a source of tricks in Spades.

The fact that partner is a Passed hand also suggests an aggressive lead, since the opponents are known to have a fair amount of strength to back up their distribution.

The Clubs carry more offensive potential than the Diamond suit, due to your respective lengths, so try the ♣Q. This will probably work out fine whenever partner has at least one honor in the suit. If you had a secondary Spade honor, such as the Queen, there’d be more of a case for a Diamond, with no pressing need for an all-out attack.

Your result so far:

A: ♥6. The play in 1NT is rarely a race, since the strength is finely balanced between both sides. For this reason, many players prefer to lead passively, not wanting to risk attacking from a tenace. They expect to have enough time to profitably attack the suit later on, if needs be.

In line with this philosophy, a Heart lead is superior to an active Spade or Diamond. A Club is less safe from 10 x, for it could blow the whole suit. The worst a Heart can do is take away a guess for declarer.

Your result so far: