IMPs Abound by Ben Norton

A: ♥A. You can hardly expect a round of Clubs to stand up after partner’s preempt, and any tricks your side is due in the pointed-suits won’t go away. You should therefore lay down the ♥A. West likely has long Diamonds, in which case it may be essential to take your tricks while you can.

Who knows, partner might have the ♥K, as he did when the actual hand was played. That’s not too hard to believe, given that his reason for failing to preempt as dealer was probably that he has Heart length.

Your result so far:

A: ♣Q. You have a sound alternative to the lead of partner’s suit. A Club is both safe and constructive, while the ♦Q could easily blow a trick. Partner’s third-in-hand opening didn’t promise good Diamonds.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. A Club lead into East’s suit doesn’t appeal, and a Spade would be a shot in the dark, especially with partner’s having few high cards. You could try your own suit, but if partner had some help, he might have supported you.

Your safest shot is the ♥A. It won’t give away a trick and might prevent you from being endplayed later. You’ll have a better idea of how to get off lead once you’ve seen the dummy.

This was the right lead in practice as well as theory. Continuing to give nothing away, South got off lead with the ♦K at trick two, pinning declarer’s singleton Queen, and later scored both his black-suit Kings to go with North’s ♥K.

Your result so far:

A: ♠Q. You can see three tricks and hope for the Diamond suit to provide a fourth. Partner can’t have a great deal, after all. However, it could be that a slow Club trick is needed to set the contract, partner holding ♣J10x or the like, in which case a Club lead would be disastrous.

A red-suit attack would be suicidal, so you’re left with a Spade and, as usual, the best card to lead when you have three cards in dummy’s suit is the top one, the Queen. This could squash an important singleton on your right, or just prevent declarer from picking up the suit when he has ♠A10 in hand opposite K9xx in dummy, for example.

The ♠Q has deceptive overtones as well. Declarer might decide to play you for the ♠J and take a subsequent finesse through you.

Your result so far:

A: ♥5. The ♠K may well be on your right, so keep your fingers off the ♠A. Besides, partner’s apparently meagre values would be put to best use elsewhere, in a suit that dummy isn’t about to become void.

In the same vein, a minor-suit offensive could deliver the game-going trick. You can hope to come to four winners on passive play, so try a trump. Your opponents rate to have a nine-card fit, but even if this does pick up partner’s holding, it’s something that declarer could always do himself.

Your result so far: