Lead with Barry by Monika

A: ♠3 - Although a diamond lead could easily be right, my instincts are to lead a spade. Declarer is quite likely to have a singleton – and that being the case, a low spade rather than the jack may be the best way to set up spade tricks for our side. That way if dummy puts up an honor we preserve all the useful intermediates in the suit for later on.

Your result so far:

A: ♣4 - There is no reason to look for any other lead than your fourth highest club, even though declarer is favorite to hold four cards in that suit. If partner cannot overcall a major, the odds against him having a decent five-carder are very slim. So you might as well lead the suit in front of your face.

Your result so far:

A: ♠4 - On this auction it does not sound as if either dummy or declarer have four spades, so lead the spade four. Partner may assume you have a four-card suit, but no real harm should come of that. Do not lead the spade six, thinking that this shows a less good suit – that will just make partner’s job of reading the spots even harder.


Your result so far:

A: ♦9 - Declarer has shown a balanced 18-19 with diamonds stopped. The question is whether to lead diamonds or to guess whether to attack another suit. Since if you reject the diamond lead, you will still be on a blind guess as to what to do, I’d stick with the simple approach and lead the diamond nine… at least partner cannot blame you if this turns out badly!

Your result so far:

A: ♦4 - Your partner may or may not have spades (dummy might have spade length) but leading from jack-third may cost a trick even if he has four spades. Even though you are leading into the strong hand I would guess to lead diamonds. At least I can see I have length in that suit.

Your result so far: