Best of British by Ben Norton

A: ♠A. On auctions like these, when your opponents have landed in 3NT on the basis of a long suit, they often have nine quick tricks to run. You should therefore look to take five tricks straight off the bat, and the Spade suit is your best bet, with declarer likely to hold the ♥K for his 3NT call.

Try the ♠A, thus unblocking the suit when partner has the likes of K x x x x. This will also allow you to keep the lead if you need to look elsewhere, which will likely be the case if dummy has the ♠K or if partner discourages.

Partner had ♠K J 10 x and nothing else on the full deal, so a Spade lead (or the ♥A) was needed to set the game.

Your result so far:

A: ♥J. Just like on the last deal, declarer has a long suit at his disposal, one which will probably run, given your Spade holding. There is a good chance that he has nine quick tricks, so again you should defend actively, aiming to take five winners quickly.

The Heart suit offers your best chance of scoring tricks, needing little more than for partner to hold the ♥A and an outside trick. If West had only raised to 2NT, denoting a balanced hand in the 18-19 range, you wouldn’t dream of making such a dangerous lead as a Heart, preferring a passive opening. In general, broken four-card holdings don’t make for good leads.

Partner held the ♥A and ♣A on the full deal, so a rounded-suit lead would allow you to take the first five tricks.

Your result so far:

A: ♣5. It doesn’t pay to double freely-bid slams for pure penalty. Rather, partner has made a Lightner double, asking for an unusual lead, most likely based on a side-suit void. He is hoping you can give him a ruff, and he probably has an Ace to cash as well.

The double usually asks for the lead of dummy’s first-bid suit, and this is no exception. Partner surely has a Club void, as suggested by your holding. Lead the ♣5, a suit preference signal for a Spade return, although this is unlikely to matter.

Partner would indeed ruff your lead and cash the ♥A for a quick set.

Your result so far:

A: ♦Q. You can be sure that declarer is prepared for a Spade lead. He wouldn’t have bid 3NT with only one stopper when the suit had been bid and raised against him. A Spade attack is therefore unlikely to bear fruit, and could help declarer along his way.

You should look elsewhere, and what better alternative than your Diamond sequence?

Partner had ♦K x x and the ♥A. The ♦Q lead set up three tricks to go with your two major-suit Aces.

Your result so far:

A: ♠7. You should generally prefer a major-suit lead to a minor on this auction, when West has declined to use Stayman, therefore suggesting length in the minors. So, even though your Clubs are stronger, a Spade is your best bet.

With your holding lots of high cards behind declarer, the strong hand, you can hope for his finesses to fail if he's left to his own devices, arguing for a safe lead.

The fact that West is a passed hand, indicating that declarer won’t have lots of extra values to work with, also suggests that a passive defense, one that won’t give anything away, might be ideal. That’s another plus for the Spade lead, being from small cards. You should select the ♠7, second-highest from weakness.

A Spade lead had an attacking purpose on the actual deal, finding partner with ♠A K x x x.

Your result so far: