Which Card? (Part II) by Ben Norton

A: ♦4. You would usually lead the Queen from a holding headed by the Queen and Jack, but here it’s best to lead a low one.

East has promised a Diamond stop with his attempt to play in 3NT, and West will have seven Spades and three Hearts for his attempt to play in Spades with an eight-card Heart fit guaranteed. Therefore if you lead the ♦Q there is a good chance that declarer will be able to pick up your holding later on with the aid of a ruffing finesse, if partner has H x with x x in dummy.

The Queen is the natural lead because it will enable you to pick up the King in dummy, but here that can’t happen, because the stop is known to be on your right. Moreover, there is very little risk to leading a low card. It will only really lose when declarer has A K 10 or H 10 x opposite H x in the dummy, neither of which is very likely. If partner has either the Ace, King or Ten of Diamonds the lead of your fourth-highest will ensure that declarer can’t pick up your holding in the suit.

Your result so far:

A: ♠K. Against suit contracts it’s normally best to lead top of a sequence.

If you were defending a No-trump contract you might lead the Queen to receive an attitude signal from partner, so you know whether to continue the suit or not, and hopefully not to get caught in a Bath Coup (declarer ducking from A J x). However against a suit contract this isn’t as much of a concern. It’s more important to lead the King to let your partner know about the strength of your holding. Leading an ambiguous Queen will lead to partner playing you for the Queen and Jack, and he may fail to return the suit later on.

Your result so far:

A: ♠8. The normal card to lead from a holding headed by one honor is the fourth-highest, but this situation demands a different approach.

From the 3♠ it's clear that you and your partner have at least ten Spades between you, therefore you’ll only be able to cash one round of the suit. However your partner doesn’t know this (you could still have five), and if you set off with the ♠5 lead he may try to cash a second round. Instead you should lead the ♠8, your second-highest. By doing this you’re feigning weakness in the suit, which will cause partner to switch once he wins the ♠A at trick one, because he’ll think that declarer has the ♠K.

You hope that partner will switch to a Diamond at trick two, through declarer’s likely King and into your Ace-Queen.

Your result so far:

A: ♣2. Holding a Diamond void, you hope to reach partner’s hand in Clubs so you can take a ruff.

The normal and ‘safe’ lead would be the ♣K, asking partner for a count signal so you’ll know how many rounds of Clubs are standing up. But that would be uninspired defense. Partner is likely to hold the ♣J, and if he does you will be able to take one (or maybe even two) Diamond ruffs, so long as you start with a low Club to reach his hand. Partner won’t read the position incorrectly when you lead the Two, since you are marked with at least five good Clubs for your 2♣ overcall. He will see that your lead is a suit preference signal for Diamonds. After all, why else would you underlead A K Q?

Your result so far:

A: ♥2. It’s usually not a good idea to lead away from Aces against suit contracts, but here it cannot cost, and you stand to gain a lot if the layout is favourable.

The benefit of leading a low card is more of a deceptive one than a technical one. Partner could have K x and you’ll be able to give him a ruff, but that isn’t so likely. Say instead that dummy goes down with the ♥K J. Declarer will naturally place the Ace in partner’s hand and will insert the Jack, losing to partner’s Queen. If you lead the Ace you would give the game away and if you don’t lead a Heart at all declarer will either be able to shed his losing Hearts or he will come to the same guess later, but with more information.

Another interesting position that you stand to gain against is when partner has K J x (x), with x x x in dummy and Q 10 x in declarer’s hand. From a technical perspective declarer will always lose only two tricks in the suit, but if you lead a low card to partner’s King and he returns the suit, declarer will have a nasty guess to make. Either partner has A K x (x) or K J x (x). You might argue that partner won’t know enough about the hand to risk a low Heart return if he has the Ace and King, in case declarer started with Q x, but on the other hand how often will you lead away from the Ace? Declarer is bound to go wrong some of the time.

The stigma that’s attached to leading away from Aces against suit contracts is plentiful, and rightly so, because all manner of things can go wrong. Declarer could have an unsupported King, or K x x opposite Q x x on table, or one opponent could have a singleton and the other the King, or partner could withhold his high honor in fear of giving away a trick when declarer has the Ace. However because neither opponent can have a singleton Heart and declarer has denied having the Ace or King, there is very little danger of blowing a trick with a low Heart lead in this scenario. Also, partner heard declarer deny a Heart control, so he’ll know that you have the Ace and there’ll be no deceiving him.

It’s true that the layouts on which the lead of a small card gains are quite subtle and specific, but when there’s no downside you might as well recruit the upside to work in your favour, no matter how small, rather than giving up on the upside all together.

When considering which card to lead against suit contracts, be sure to think about the following factors:

- Your plan for the defense as a whole
- The impression your lead will convey to partner (or to a lesser extent, declarer)
- Which card rates to gain more often

Generally you should lead top of sequences, even with poor intermediate cards, and you should strive to lead accurately from other holdings, leading your fourth-highest from H x x x (x) and your second-highest from x x x (x) (x). But if you think the situation calls for it, you can always choose to veer away from these guidelines, for example if you want partner to switch or not to switch, or if you want partner to give you a specific kind of signal. Nevertheless you should always have a good reason in mind, and think about how likely it is that the position you’re playing for actually exists, and if your play is worth it.

Your result so far: