No Trumps, Partner? by Ben Norton

A: ♥8. You should strive to lead passively against No-trump slams, unless the bidding suggests they have long suits to run and will make lots of tricks if left to their own devices. That isn’t the case here, after a quantitative raise from West. Your opponents will simply have lots of power, leaving partner with nothing.

It’s much safer to lead from lots of small cards than it is to underlead honors. Put the ball in play with a Heart, leaving declarer to his own devices. You hope that he will take losing finesses into your hand.

A Heart lead gave declarer nothing and he eventually went down.

Your result so far:

A: ♠6. One should lead aggressively against No-trump games that are bid confidently (i.e. when an opponent is unlimited), within reason. What’s more, a major-suit lead should be preferred after West declined to use Stayman. A Spade lead rates to establish tricks, and needs much less from partner than a Heart does.

If West had just invited game, you might have preferred a passive Diamond lead, giving nothing away in what was sure to be a tight contract. Broken four-card holdings make for aggressive options, not safe ones.

A Spade lead set up four Spade tricks and left declarer on a Diamond guess for contract. On any other start, he could afford to get the Diamonds wrong, remaining with a Spade stopper.

Your result so far:

A: ♥10. Declarer surely has the ♥K, so it is possible that a Heart lead will give the ninth trick, but that’s relatively unlikely when you have a stopper in Clubs, a suit which declarer may well need to bring in. On the other hand, not leading Hearts could leave you a tempo behind.

You should hope to establish three more Heart tricks on lead, then come in to cash them later. You might lead the ♥A, to cater for J x in dummy, but partner surely has something over there for his raise to 2♥, and kicking off with the ♥A could be fatal when declarer has K J x. Make the normal lead of the ♥10.

A Heart lead did set the whole suit up, leaving declarer to play ♣A Q 10 x x x facing x x x for six tricks. It would take a clairvoyant to finesse the ♣10 on the first round.

Your result so far:

A: ♠Q. The ♠K is marked on your right, and it could well be that this gives the ninth trick, but it’s more likely that you need to establish your long suit, hoping that partner can return one when he gets in.

Even if you stay off a Spade lead, awaiting a switch from partner, it could easily be that declarer has such as ♠K 9 x, when he will be able to duck the lead to you. Only when partner has a singleton Spade does the ♠Q lead rate to be costly. Anything else would be a guess anyway.

Declarer did indeed hold ♠K 9 x, partner having the ♦A and two Spades. The ♠Q would therefore knock out declarer’s ♠K in good time, while any other lead would cost a crucial tempo.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. Now this is different. East won’t have a strong balanced hand for his bidding; he would have rebid 1NT with 18-19 and would have opened 2NT with 20-22. He is gambling that he can make 3NT facing nothing, and for that, he surely holds long, running Clubs and a Spade stopper. It’s very likely that he has nine tricks on top.

Rather than succumb to your fate, try the sneak attack of a Heart lead. Declarer might not have a Heart stopper, and you could even have five tricks to run off the top. To lead a low Heart might block the suit when partner has the desired K x x x x, so try an honor, and it might as well be the Ace, catering for a singleton ♥K.

Indeed, partner did have five Hearts to the King and declarer had ten top tricks otherwise, so a Heart honor was the winner.

Your result so far: