Leads against Slams (Suit Contract) by Matthias Huberschwiller

Your opponents are about to play a Suit slam.

Is this the time to try and set up a trick immediately, or to wait, sit back, and hope they will not have enough tricks?

Your lead!

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ K 2
♥ 6 5 2
♦ 10 9 8 7
♣ 10 9 8 7

Q: 1 - What do you lead as West?

South	West	North	East
1♥	Pass	2 NT *	Pass
3♥	Pass	4♣	Pass
4 NT **	Pass	5♥ ***	Pass
6♥

* Jacoby, 4 card in Hearts, and forcing to game
** Keycard Blackwood
*** 2 keycards without the Trump Queen

A: 10♣ - You have two possible leads: the 10 of each minor. How can you choose?
Look at the bidding: North has shown a cue-bid in Clubs. If he has the King, your partner may have something behind him, while if you choose Diamonds, you may pick up your partner's holding under South's tenace.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 8 2
♥ J 10 8 7
♦ A 3 2
♣ 10 9 8 7

Q: 2 - What do you lead as West?

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	Pass
1♥	Pass	2♥	Pass
4 NT *	Pass	5♦ **	Pass
6♥	Pass	Pass	Pass

* Keycard Blackwood
** 4 or 1 keycard(s)

A: A♦ - How is this Slam going down? Easy, you have the Ace of Diamonds, and a nearly-certain trump trick.
By leading the Ace of Diamonds, you make sure declarer cannot discard his Diamond loser before you get the lead again.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 6 5 4 2
♥ K 6 5 2
♦ A 6 2
♣ 8 4

Q: 3 - What do you lead as West?

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	2♦	Pass
2♠	Pass	3♠	Pass
4 NT *	Pass	5♥ **	Pass
6♠	Pass	Pass	Pass

* Keycard Blackwood
** Two keycards without the Trump Queen

A: 2♥ - Despite your four Spades, you are not going to make a trump trick.
Do you know something about declarer's plan?
He has a Diamond suit in dummy. After having pulled trumps, he will give you the Ace of Diamonds and discard his losers on the Diamonds.
How can you counter that? You need to lead a small Heart, trying to set up a Heart trick if your partner has the Queen, or even the Jack if the Queen is in dummy, and declarer guesses wrong.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 6 5 2
♥ 9 8 7 6 2
♦ J 10 6 5
♣ 4

Q: 4 - What do you lead as West?

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	2 NT *	Pass
4 NT **	Pass	5♠ ***	Pass
7♠	Pass	Pass	Pass

* Jacoby, 4 trumps, forcing to game
** Keycard Blackwood
*** 2 Keycards with the Queen of Spades

A: 2♠ - Your opponents have bid a grand slam. Your partner won't have an Ace, so there's no point to leading your singleton. You'll only help declarer.
You have a sequence in Diamonds, but it could give away a trick, for example when dummy has Ace-Queen-9-2, and declarer King-3.
Usually, when your opponents reach a grand slam, a Trump lead is the safe lead (unless it is a singleton), and will not give away a trick, since your opponents should have the Ace-King-Queen in their trump suit.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ 10 9 8 7
♥ A 4 2
♦ 10 7 4 3 2
♣ 5

Q: 5 - What do you lead as West?

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	Pass
1♥	Pass	3♥	Pass
4 NT *	Pass	5♣ **	Pass
6♥	Pass	Pass	Pass

* Keycard Blackwood
** 3 or 0 keycards

A: 10♠ - Did you try to lead your singleton?
When your opponents have bid a slam, they should have only one ace missing.
Since you have one, your partner is marked with none. A singleton lead is useful only if your partner can get the lead, and that's not the case here.
The passive lead of the 10 of Spades is better, hoping to take another trick (maybe because of a bad club-split).

Your result so far:

Open Question

Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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