Green Baize by Ben Norton

A: ♣4. Partner would have overcalled 1♠ directly if he had five of them. He only has four Spades, and must surely have some shape outside to justify entering the auction at the two-level. He would have doubled with length in both minors, so he has only one of them, but would have overcalled 1♦ with Diamonds. It follows that partner has Club length. He’s probably 4.2.2.5.

You don’t have many Spade tricks to take. Use this opportunity to lead a Club through dummy, which would break up a possible endplay on the actual layout.

Your result so far:

A: ♥5. A Heart lead is your best chance, but dummy may well have length there for his Stayman bid. In that case, kicking off with the ♥J could block the suit. It’s better to lead a low one, unblocking when partner holds a doubleton ♥9 or short honor.

This will also work wonders when declarer has a doubleton honor facing the likes of K 9 x x in dummy; leading the Jack would give him three stoppers, while leading low will defeat the hand if declarer must knock out both your high cards in the pointed suits.

Tabling the ♥J would only be necessary when partner has nothing in Hearts and an outside entry; quite the parlay. A low Heart was the winner on the layout, unblocking the suit when partner held Q x and dummy K 9 x x.

Your result so far:

A: ♠6. Your opponents won't have much to spare, so the auction screams for a passive lead when you have length in dummy’s long suit, which will likely translate into a stopper or two. Partner won't have a decent five-card suit, having not overcalled, so the out-and-out attack of a Heart would be overly ambitious.

Table a Spade, which gave declarer too much work to do on the full hand. In fact, it served the offensive purpose of attacking his communications.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. There are bound to be discards coming on dummy’s Spades. You should therefore look to take your tricks on the go, starting with the Ace of the unbid suit. This is all but certain to stand up, whereas the ♣A might not.

In fact, you had two Hearts and a Club to take, but they would disappear if you didn’t cash them.

Your result so far:

A: ♠2. In general, small slams in suit contracts should be attacked. You would normally expect your side to have a keycard, or an entry, and should look to establish a trick immediately, to cash when you gain the lead. A Spade offers your best chance of that here, requiring less from partner than any other suit. What’s more, partner didn’t take the opportunity to double 4♣ for the lead.

Under no circumstances should you lead a ‘safe’ trump, which could blow the suit, but is too passive anyway. Bear in mind that you won’t even gain the lead to play a second round, so this is unlikely to damage declarer’s ruffing potential.

On the layout, your lead made little difference, provided you didn’t kick off with a trump, which would persuade declarer to drop partner’s singleton ♥K offside!

Your result so far: