Leads against No-trump by Matthias Huberschwiller

A: ♠10 – You need to lead from your five-card suit.

K-10-9 are a broken sequence and it is the top of the inner sequence that you need to lead and not the fourth best.


Your result so far:

A: ♦2 – The choice here is between spades and diamonds. You need to look at the bidding: North has bid Stayman and did not support his partner’s hearts. This means he has four spades.

Therefore, you need to turn towards the diamonds. It is very important to analyze the bidding sequence well before choosing an opening lead.


Your result so far:

A: ♦9 – Your length is in the same suit as declarer’s five-card suit! Therefore it is forbidden to lead from it because the only thing it could lead to is to help declarer establish tricks in hearts.

You need to choose another suit and as the longest of the three remaining is diamonds, you need to lead the diamond nine, following “Top of Nothing.”


Your result so far:

A: ♠4 – Your two black suits are nearly identical. So, how can you choose? Again, it is the bidding sequence that holds the key for you. South has no five-card major and North has no four-card major (he did not bid Stayman). But your opponents can have the minors, and therefore you need to lead a spade.

When your opponents have not searched for a fit in a major, it means that they are rather short in majors and that this is where you need to look for an opening lead.


Your result so far:

A: ♥2 – The sequence 1NT – 3NT points at the majors being interesting candidates for an opening lead. But you have both! How will you choose?

With two four-card suits, it is better to lead from the weaker honor because the risk of giving away a trick is smaller. Therefore, you need to lead the ♥2.

Leading from an ace fourth is a very dangerous lead because it will often give away a trick and unlikely to get a lot of tricks from length.


Your result so far: