Concerning the Mundane by Ben Norton

A: ♥A. Even though West bid Hearts, you can afford to lay down a top one to get a look at the dummy. This may give away a tempo, but only when the ♥Q is in dummy and declarer has a doubleton. Meanwhile, you’ll still be on lead at trick two (hopefully) to decide on a defensive plan.

Dummy was 3.5.1.4 with strong Clubs, so after cashing a top Heart, you would shift to Ace and another trump, cutting down on Diamond ruffs in dummy. To lead either minor would blow a tempo, fatally.

Your result so far:

A: ♣4. You must be severely outgunned as partner couldn’t muster up a bid over 2♦. You should adopt an all-out attack, and a Club carries more hope than a Heart, simply because you hold slightly more in the Club suit. Partner didn’t double 3♦, eliminating a Diamond lead from consideration, and a trump lead would be too passive.

A Club found partner with a miraculous A K 10 x sitting over dummy’s Q x x. He could thus take the first three tricks, finessing against dummy, and wait to score a trump winner as well. This was your one time on lead to play a Club through, of course.

Your result so far:

A: ♥3. You could lead the unbid suit, but there’s little reason to expect partner has any help there, and underleading side-suit Kings is a dangerous business. An urgent defense probably isn’t necessary when you have slow stoppers in dummy’s long suit, so put the ball in play with a trump, giving little away.

This could resolve a guess for declarer, but that’s preferable to blowing a trick which declarer couldn’t take by himself. It’s traditional to lead low from a small doubleton trump, but it’s unlikely to matter here.

A trump was safe on the layout, whereas a Diamond lead would gift declarer a vital trick.

Your result so far:

A: ♠3. A Heart doesn’t appeal, into dummy’s length, and a minor-suit attack would be ill-advised. That leaves your Spades and, even though partner didn’t double 2♠ for the lead when he had the chance, he might still hold the ♠J. Best is to lead low in an effort to unblock the suit or at least keep a link with partner. Your hand is hardly bursting with outside entries, after all.

Partner held the magical ♠J 10 doubleton, but there was 8 x x x in dummy, so leading an honor would block the suit if declarer won the first round. Your Diamond holding was good enough to provide entry to the Spades.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. Dummy will usually be 3.1.4.5 for the 3♠ bid, or at least have Heart weakness, and declarer would have responded 1♥ with 4/4 in the majors. It follows that partner has at least five Hearts, maybe six, and your best shot is to try and establish his suit.

To lead the ♥4 could block the suit. Best is to kick off with the ♥A, squashing any significant singleton in dummy along the way. You intend to continue with the Queen, doing more unblocking, if partner encourages.

Partner’s Hearts weren’t quite as good as you hoped, but useful enough for four tricks on the layout. He held ♥10 8 x x x with J x in dummy, so the ♥A followed by the ♥Q would set the whole suit up, with the ♠K as an entry to the long cards in partner’s hand.

Your result so far: