Active or Passive? by Ben Norton

A: ♣10. You don’t particularly want to lead anything, but you must. Passive leads are the order of the day against partscores, and a trump from queen-doubleton into a likely eight-card fit is far too dangerous. A Diamond from K x into East’s second suit doesn’t appeal either.

Between the rounded suits, a Club is safer than a Heart as not only do you have more Clubs than Hearts, but you also hold an interior sequence which may serve to pick up an honor in dummy. Hearts could be a suit that declarer has to play himself at some point. You’d prefer not to broach them from a tenuous holding such as K 10 x.

The ♣10 lead gave nothing away as partner held the singleton Queen.

Your result so far:

A: ♦8. Partner should have strong trumps to convert your take-out double, so a Diamond lead is unlikely to cost. Meanwhile, leading from any of your side-suit aces could easily blow a trick.

Who knows? A trump lead might be necessary to prevent a ruff in dummy! Stranger things have happened.

The singleton trump lead didn’t help declarer, while the alternatives would.

Your result so far:

A: ♣5. You hardly want to mount an all-out attack in the Diamond suit from a broken four-card holding; you’d much prefer partner or declarer to broach the suit in case the ♦Q is on your right. A Spade from x x x x is slightly safer than a Club, but with little upside.

Even though West had bid the suit, your best chance of scoring tricks with this weak hand is via a Club ruff. Try the ♣5 as a happy compromise between the active Diamond and passive Spade.

A Club lead secured a third-round ruff for one down, together with partner’s ♣A, ♥A and a slow Diamond trick.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. It pays to have some sort of plan against high-level contracts. Here, you would like to get partner in for a Spade ruff pronto, before declarer can draw trumps. In the not-unlikely case that partner has a singleton Heart, you might be able to put him on play with a second-round Heart ruff.

In any case, laying down the ♥A is unlikely to cost when you have such length in the suit, and even if you don’t strike gold, you may be able to change tack at trick two. The same cannot be said for the all-or-nothing Diamond lead.

Both partner and dummy had a singleton Heart, but partner’s highest trump was bigger than dummy’s. Thus, the ♥A followed by the ♥Q, a suit preference signal asking for a Spade return, had the desired effect of delivering a Spade ruff for one down.

Your result so far:

A: ♥7. You should be loath to lead from broken four-card holdings in general. It’s often much better if partner can play the suit from his side of the table, and given you have only a nine-count, partner rates to have at least one entry over there.

A Heart lead from four small cards is much more attractive than a Diamond from Q x x in terms of safety. What’s more, leading a high spot-card such as the ♥7 to deny strength in the suit will make it easier for partner to work out to switch when he gets in, rather than doggedly returning your suit. Perhaps he will manage a Spade shift through declarer’s hoped-for King?

A Spade lead would give declarer his ninth trick. The passive, waiting defense was the winner.

Your result so far: