Winter Fours by Ben Norton

A: ♥2. You have no indication that a passive Spade is in order, so it’s between the red suits. You would much prefer that partner broaches Diamonds, in case declarer has the King. It is therefore preferable to lead your weaker Heart suit.

Put it this way – if you lead a Diamond and find partner with the ♦K, you’ll merely be cashing tricks you already have. By attacking Hearts, you rate to establish tricks and can await a Diamond switch from the right side of the table.

On the actual layout, partner had the ♣K and ♦Jxxx. A non-Diamond lead was needed, such that partner could gain the lead in Clubs and shoot the ♦J through declarer’s ♦Kxx.

Your result so far:

A: ♠10. It’s often right to lead side-suit singletons against trump contracts, but this is not the time. You have only one trump, making the lead somewhat ineffective, for declarer can pull your teeth immediately. Also, Clubs is declarer’s primary suit. Leading one would only help him establish them.

A Diamond would be a shot in the dark. That only leaves a Spade, your agreed suit. With any luck, declarer won’t be tipped off as to the distribution, and the combination of bad breaks in the rounded suits will be enough to defeat him, as long as you don’t sound the alarm.

A passive Spade lead made declarer’s task that much harder on the hand. On a Club attack, he would lay down the ♥A and, eyeing your Jack with suspicion, revert to Clubs. At trick three, he would have a full blueprint of the hand and proceed to cross-ruff. A Spade lead would see him take a normal line and, unaware of the bad splits, he would likely lose control.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. East’s 2NT bid is surely based on a double Heart stopper, likely the ♥AQ. If you lead one, hoping to gain the lead twice in Diamonds, you may be waiting a while, for dummy has long Spades to set up.

Your best shot is to lay down the ♦A, hoping to find partner with an entry for a Heart shift, or, potentially, to even run the Diamond suit. At any rate, you can decide how to continue at trick two.

Partner had the ♦Q and declarer ♥AQ doubleton. The ♦A would fetch an encouraging card from partner, whereupon you would underlead the ♦K to his Queen, thus retaining control, and a Heart would come through to set the suit up. Clinical defense.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. Leading from Ace-doubleton in a suit partner hasn’t bid isn’t usually recommended, but it seems your best chance here. After all, the best times to lead doubletons, looking for ruffs, are when you have trumps under control, small trumps to ruff with, and reason to suspect partner has an entry.

The auction suggests an active defense is in order, which makes a passive Club and non-committal Diamond unappealing. Try the ♥A, intending to continue the suit, gain the lead with the ♠A, and put partner in for a Heart ruff.

When the deal was played, the ♥A was the only lead to break the contract. Partner had the ♣A as an entry to supply the ruff.

Your result so far:

A: ♦K. Partner has the majority of your side’s assets and is sitting over dummy’s strength. You should therefore look to retain the lead with the ♦K, to potentially play a black suit through at trick two.

It would be risky to lead a Club on the go, for you may need to pocket a Diamond trick first. If a round of Diamonds doesn’t stand up, you’re unlikely to beat this.

On the actual hand, partner had the red Aces and the ♣K. A Club lead or switch was required to set up the third defensive trick. On a low Diamond lead, partner should work out to return a low Club from Kx, with dummy’s Spades looming, but it’s much easier from your side of the table.

Your result so far: