Euros Challenge by Ben Norton

A: ♠8. Declarer has at least eight cards in the minors, so a Club lead from a broken four-card holding isn’t appealing. You can tell that Hearts aren’t splitting, meaning there’s no need for an all-out attack. Put the ball in play with a safe Spade lead from your sequence. This may even set up tricks if partner has a tenace behind dummy’s length.

A lead of either rounded suit would give away a trick, while a Spade served to establish an extra trick in the suit when partner had A J x.

Your result so far:

A: ♠3. Declarer probably has six Spades and four Hearts. After all, West’s 3♠ bid merely showed preference, and is likely based on a doubleton. In that case, you won’t have too many tricks coming in the minors, and seeking a Club ruff is unlikely to amount to anything.

You had better try to stop declarer taking his tricks instead, leading a trump to cut down on Heart ruffs in dummy. This is unlikely to do any harm as declarer would probably have finessed Spades through partner anyway.

Indeed, a trump lead prevented an easy Heart ruff in dummy.

Your result so far:

A: ♥J. Any side-suit lead would be too dangerous. A trump is not without risk either, but will only really lose when partner has ♥K x x (or ♥A Q x) and declarer the rest of the suit, when he couldn’t get to dummy to take a finesse. Of course, you must lead the ♥J rather than the ‘expert’ low Heart, which could force partner to put up his Ace on air. Such tactics should be reserved for moments when your opponents are playing in a known fit.

The ♥J lead gave nothing away. Partner could play low from his A x x and you’d later come to two trump tricks.

Your result so far:

A: ♥2. East must have five Spades to repeat the suit, leaving him with at least six Hearts. He will be looking to ruff his Spades in dummy. You should lead a trump, cutting down on those ruffs to protect your slow Spade winners. You expect there to be only two Hearts on table, so this line of defense rates to be effective.

It's traditional to lead low from a doubleton trump, since your high pip might come in useful later.

Partner held the ♥A and could win the first trick to return a trump, denuding declarer of Heart ruffs altogether. The contract had to go down then.

Your result so far:

A: ♠6. West rates to have strong Spades for his 2♠ response, perhaps headed by the ♠A K J. It’s unlikely that East has a Spade void, else he might have shown it over the keycard ask. With bad breaks lurking around the corner for declarer, it might prove effective to force him to make a premature decision on a Spade lead through dummy. He can scarcely afford to finesse this early, but that might be his last chance. He doesn’t know about the bad breaks, after all.

Whatever you do, don’t lead your singleton trump, which may give the show away when partner holds ♣J x x x.

A Spade lead put declarer to an immediate guess. He declined the finesse, then tried to take a Heart ruff in dummy, overruffed by partner. Declarer might have pursued another line on a non-Spade lead. Certainly, he’d have more flexibility and might view to fall back on the Spade finesse after testing the other suits.

Your result so far: