Opening Leads against Suit Contracts 6 by Paul Bowyer

A: Lead the ♣3.

What do you lead against 4♠? With trash, facing a Passed partner, it is often a good idea to lead a shortage, but there are two reasons why you shouldn’t on this hand.

Firstly, East has bid Hearts – so partner is unlikely to be well at home there. Secondly, you have four trumps – it is often right to retain them as a nuisance value.

Best is the aggressive, attacking Club lead, the ♣3 for choice as we lead Low for Like. The idea is to tap declarer, making him ruff Clubs, and shorten his trumps.

No other defense offers as good a prospect as this.

Your result so far:

A: Lead the ♥2.

Another example of an attacking lead (see Q1).

East-West bid to 5♦ rapidly, with both players having implied long side-suits. On these occasions the defenders have to get their tricks quickly before the rats get at them.

Hearts (the unbid suit, note) represents the best chance of quick tricks for the defenders, so you should lead the ♥2. On a passive lead (a trump, say) declarer may well be able to dump dummy’s Heart losers on his long Clubs.

There is a bridge urban myth that you should never lead away from a King. Poppycock and balderdash…

Your result so far:

A: Lead the ♦5.

What do you lead against against a suit slam bid in this fashion?

The answer is that you should attack with an aggressive lead. Declarer is sure to make tricks with dummy’s Heart suit so you have to set up two tricks quickly.

The best prospect looks to be in Diamonds – so the opening lead should be the ♦5, hoping that partner has either the ♦Q (possible) or the ♦A (unlikely).

If declarer has the ♦A Q it's unlikely to matter much as all of East's Diamonds will be dumped on dummy's Hearts anyway.

Your result so far:

A: Lead the ♣6.

Yeah, I know, this is a quiz on leads against suit contracts and here you are on lead to 6NT. The question is here because I wanted to show the contrast between leading against No-trump slams and suit slams.

Against suit contrasts it is often right to attack before losers are discarded on a long side-suit. That was the rationale behind the lead on Q3.

Against No-trump slams, especially ones reached like this (where it appears there are two balanced hands facing each other) it is important to give nothing away. Passivity is the key.

East-West probably have 33 points between them, leaving partner with zip. It is futile to lead a Spade, even more so to lead a Diamond. Best is lead a Club from garbage and allow East to do his own dirty work.

The whole deal may be a "Find the Lady" hand, with East having to locate the ♦Q – you must do nothing to make it easy for declarer.

Your result so far:

A: Lead the ♦2.

From spectacular slams (Q3 and Q4) to a prosaic part-score. This is a common type of hand; the opponents end in a low-level part-score after responder Passes opener’s rebid.

Before seeing dummy the defenders know that dummy is likely to have a Spade shortage and a few Diamonds (otherwise West would have given preference to 2♠).

So, East is likely to play the hand by ruffing Spades in the dummy. How can this be prevented? Simple: lead a trump! Trump leads can be made for two reasons – one is that it is passive, the other is that you might prevent ruffs in the dummy.

Your result so far: