Alternative Arena by Ben Norton

A: ♥5. Partner’s ‘out of the blue’ double can hardly be based on raw power after his pre-emptive opening. He must be asking for an unusual lead. He almost certainly has a side-suit void to go with his assumed keycard, and is asking for a ruff on the go.

Rather than lead the pedestrian Spade you would have done had partner passed, you should now table a Heart. That’s likely to be the suit partner is ruffing when you can account for at least eleven of them on the bidding. What’s more, you should lead a middling spot-card, just to make sure partner doesn’t get any grand ideas about trying to find an entry in your hand for another ruff. A suit preference ♥5, showing no preference between Clubs and Spades, will suffice.

Partner indeed had a Heart void and the ♦A. His Lightner double worked wonders.

Your result so far:

A: ♠10. You have strength in all of the side-suits and partner has length in each of them. So, how will declarer make his tricks? He will surely aim to take lots of ruffs, particularly in dummy’s short suit. Try to cut down on these ruffs by leading a trump.

A trump lead, followed by more trumps every time you got in, would keep you a tempo ahead, allowing declarer only one ruff on the table. The game would fail.

Your result so far:

A: ♣4. It’s between the rounded suits. A Heart is the passive option, giving little away, but that’s unlikely to bear much fruit. With both pointed suits apparently lying well for declarer, you had better go on the offensive and try to set up tricks. You need much less from partner in the Club suit, so table the ♣4.

A Club lead struck gold as partner held ♣J x x x x and a slow Diamond trick.

Your result so far:

A: ♣K. A Spade lead is unlikely to do much good. You should attack in a minor, and look no further than your Club sequence. This might serve to set up a trick or two before declarer can get the Diamonds going, say.

Partner had a wild 0.5.1.7 hand with the missing Club honors. A Club lead and continuation was needed to set up a force. Eventually, partner wound up with more trumps than declarer, and East’s long Diamond suit withered on the vine. To give partner a Spade ruff with his natural trump trick would have conceded a crucial tempo.

Your result so far:

A: ♣A. You could lead a Heart, hoping to find partner with the Queen and set up a trick to cash when you score the ♣A. However, not only might declarer hold the ♥Q, but he might have enough discards coming on the Diamonds anyway. Worst of all, your Club trick may disappear if you don’t cash it.

Lead your Ace, hoping to give partner a ruff or to just wait for a second trick. This plan is quite appealing when you have a trump void, meaning partner could have a slow winner there on a bad split.

You needed to lay down the ♣A and give partner a Club ruff to set the hand.

Your result so far: