Lead with Barry by Barry Rigal

LEADING AGAINST SLAMS/HIGH LEVEL CONTRACTS

If you are anything like me, you average about 6HCP a hand (trust me, it is more painful at Rubber Bridge) so you get more than your fair share of chances to defend to a slam.
Just for the record, trump leads are great against grand slams where you are looking for safety, not the second undertrick, while against suits you often have to decide between passivity and trying to set up a second trick at the risk of losing it by leading too aggressively. That is what this set is about.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ 10 3
♥ K 6 5 4
♦ J 10 3
♣ Q 8 6 5

Q: 1 - What do you lead against 6♠?

South	West	North	East
-	1♦	p	1♠
p	2♥	p	3 No-trumps
p	4♠	p	6♠
p	p	p

A: ♥4: Lead the heart four. Dummy is fairly certain to put down a singleton club, so it is unlikely that you can build a trick there. Your best shot to beat the slam must be to take two quick heart tricks, or to set up a heart to go with a top winner elsewhere.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ J 10 9 7 5
♥ K 6 4
♦ 7 3
♣ J 10 5

Q: 2 - As South, what do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♦
p	1♠	p	2♣
p	3♦	p	4♣
p	5♦	p	p
p

A: ♥4: Lead the heart four. The auction has suggested that neither opponent is overloaded with heart values -- neither has cue-bid the suit or tried for three no-trump. Try to cash your heart winners before they are discarded on the spades or clubs.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ A 6 4 2
♥ 9 4
♦ J 9 4 2
♣ Q 5 3

Q: 3 - Against 6♥,what do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
p	3♥	p	6♥
p	p	p

A: ♥4: Lead the trump four. Declarer’s decision to jump to slam without using Blackwood might well suggest a void, so the spade ace looks exceptionally dangerous here. The trump looks your most passive choice; with prospects of tricks in both minor suits, playing safe looks sensible enough.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ A J 10 6 5 4
♥ K 9 3
♦ 7 5
♣ 4 2

Q: 4 - What do you lead against 6♣?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
2♠	3 No-trumps	p	6♣
p	p	p

A: ♠A: Lead the spade ace. Yes it may well get ruffed, but your best shot to set this hand is to take the spade ace before declarer discards his spades on dummy’s diamonds. Then you can sit back for the heart king at the end of the hand -- declarer will surely have to finesse, unless dummy has only one heart. At the table the spade loser was indeed about to vanish on dummy’s diamonds and all your partner scored was his trump trick.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ 8 6
♥ 7 4 2
♦ K Q 3 2
♣ Q 8 6 5

Q: 5 - What do you lead as South?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
p	1♠	p	3♣
p	4♥	p	6♥
p	p	p

A: ♥2: Lead a low trump. It is hard to predict precisely what declarer has for this auction but it feels better to lead trumps here than to risk setting up diamonds for declarer. Declarer certainly sounds as if he has diamonds under control, and may need to play to ruff clubs in dummy, in which case a trump lead may help to prevent him from doing so.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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