American Trials by Ben Norton

A: ♠K. Partner had a chance to double 3♣ for the lead but didn’t, suggesting declarer has both the ♣A and ♣Q at his disposal. Of course, it could still be right to lead the suit, with the long-term aim of setting up your Clubs, but partner has very little and declarer will presumably be looking to play on the red suits from the looks of your hand. In that case, there’s a fair chance that he’ll only need to lose the lead once on his way to nine tricks.

It's by no means clear, but perhaps it’s best to try the sneak attack of a Spade, a lead which East-West aren’t necessarily prepared for. You could try a low Spade, but given that you have plenty of re-entries, blocking the suit won’t be a problem. A top Spade is surely better, catering for a doubleton ♠J in an opponent’s hand.

Any Spade lead set the hand, finding partner with ♠J 10 9 x x. A Club would gift declarer his ninth trick.

Your result so far:

A: ♠A. The accepted practice is to bang down an Ace when declarer has a long suit to run, lest you guess the wrong suit to lead and he claims nine tricks at once. It’s often a case of who can cash out first in these situations.

Declarer is unlikely to hold the ♠K on the bidding, so laying down the ♠A won’t cost a trick. Granted, it could concede a tempo, but that would only be relevant when the ♠K is in dummy and that is declarer’s game-going trick. Much more relevant is that you will remain on play by leading the ♠A, getting a look at dummy and a signal from partner to help you work out how to continue.

On the full hand, you had four Hearts and the ♠A to cash, with declarer waiting to score seven Diamonds and three Club tricks.

Your result so far:

A: ♥7. East needn’t be heavily stacked in Hearts for his 3NT bid. He could simply have no better option, perhaps holding a good hand with short Spades. 3NT was ‘now or never’ over 3♠, after all.

A Heart lead could strand your ♥A when partner has a singleton, but it’s most unlikely to cost a trick outright, and you don’t have an attractive alternative. A minor-suit attack would be a shot in the dark. Try your fourth-highest Heart, then, hoping to strike gold in partner’s hand.

The Hearts were 7-2-2-2 around the table, so a Heart lead set up the whole suit to run when partner got in.

Your result so far:

A: ♥4. The opponents are likely in a 4-4 Spade fit and trumps are breaking badly. You can expect to score two Spade tricks a great deal of the time, but you might be able to do even better, by forcing the dummy with repeated Heart leads. If you hold up your ♠A until dummy is bereft of trumps, you may be able to then force declarer’s long Spades and wind up with trump control, able to score your long Hearts.

There isn’t a more promising line of attack available. A Diamond lead is too dangerous and you scarcely want to lead your singleton. Partner is unlikely to have more than one entry, and you’d only be ruffing with your natural trump trick in all likelihood, perhaps at the expense of giving the Club position away or costing a tempo. A Heart is your best shot. If declarer has the ♥A Q, so be it. That’s really the only losing scenario.

A Heart lead kept your side a tempo ahead in the race for trump control, provided declarer misguessed the Spade situation. No other defense would pose a problem.

Your result so far:

A: ♣2. West is presumably 3-5-1-4 with extras on this bidding. East has five Spades for his raise to game along with two Hearts for his preference bid. A Diamond lead therefore wouldn’t achieve much, with shortness in dummy, and a trump away from the Queen would be very risky. You could try a Heart, but that rates to do more bad than good, perhaps picking off partner’s holding.

Given that both majors are lying well for declarer, you should go active by attacking in Clubs, and this is one of those rare cases where it’s best to underlead your Ace. The Club strength rates to lie in dummy, with the Club bidder and the hand that’s shown extra strength, so you can be reasonably confident the ♣K is on your left. In that case, this may well talk declarer into a King-Jack misguess, or perhaps into not putting the ♣K up at all even when he doesn’t have the ♣Q or ♣J!

The sneaky Club underlead did induce a misguess from declarer, with partner holding ♣Q x x over dummy’s K J 10 x. That was for the contract.

Your result so far: