Grandiose by Ben Norton

A: ♣5. You can’t really expect a Spade trick to stand up on this auction. East wouldn’t have raised to slam without the ♥K and a first-round Spade control. East/West can’t be missing much else and West’s willingness to raise to the five-level suggests he has good Diamonds. Thus you must lead aggressively, before declarer gets his Club losers away.

Try the ♣5, hoping partner has the Queen. Then you’ll be able to cash a Club trick after scoring your ♥K.

Your result so far:

A: ♣7. East is expecting a Spade lead, yet still bid 3NT. He presumably has the Ace and Queen. Best try your other five-card suit, which requires less from partner to succeed. You never know, you might find partner with the King. Even the Jack might be enough, as long as he has a red-suit stopper.

Your result so far:

A: ♣Q. No need to try anything clever here. You can expect five Club tricks from your holding. After all, declarer would bid 3NT with ♣K x x or the like. What else? Your ♠K is likely well placed behind declarer’s Ace, so you hope to get back in fairly soon to cash your suit.

The ♣K is unlikely to be declarer’s ninth trick, for he’d need seven from the red-suits. To sit back and wait for partner to shift to Clubs is unlikely to work, since partner probably won’t be able to get in once, never mind twice, which could be necessary to pick up the ♣K.

Your result so far:

A: ♠Q. East’s 3♥ bid shows five, so presumably he doesn’t have four Spades, else he’d have opened 1♥. West, too is unlikely to have four Spades, having not used Stayman, or three Hearts, since he didn't raise his partner. That leaves partner with at least five Spades and you can assume they’re split 3-3 in the opposing hands.

There’s a fair chance you can run the Spade suit, even expecting partner to have as few as five or six points. Give him ♠K J x x x and an outside Queen, for example. If it goes wrong and declarer is gifted an extra trick in the suit, maybe holding K 10 x opposite A x x in dummy, he won't know that you don't have the Jack, so might not benefit. Even so, a Club or Diamond lead would also be dangerous, with dummy known to have length in the minors.

It’s usually best to lead passively after an invitational sequence, but here you know the Hearts are splitting for declarer, and if he has a finesse to take through partner it will work, so you should be active, and the Spade suit offers a better shot than either minor. If you had a five-card minor you’d lead that, of course, since you have the majority of the defensive strength and entries.

Your result so far:

A: ♣J. Yes, partner Doubled for a Diamond lead, but so what? Dummy is known to be short, so you won’t be taking many Diamond tricks. It’s better to attack the unbid suit with the ♣J, before declarer can set up the Hearts.

Your result so far: