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Your Hand
♠ J 6 5
♥ A Q 10 5 3
♦ 8
♣ J 9 8 5 |
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Q: 5 - Once again your opponents linger in 3NT.
What’s your shot?
South | West | North | East |
- | 1♦ | Pass | 1NT |
Pass | 3NT | Pass | Pass |
Pass | | | |
A: ♥Q. You’re definitely going to lead a Heart, but it’s less clear that the Queen is the best card, in an attempt to crush declarer’s ♥J.
For his jump to game West will have the vast majority of points between the other three hands. Therefore he rates to hold the ♥K over anyone else, which makes it very attractive to lead the Queen, to prevent declarer from taking two tricks in the suit if he holds the Jack.
If you were to lead a low one, you would present declarer with a second trick in the suit if he holds the Jack opposite K x x in dummy. Whereas if you lead the Queen and this is the position, you stand to knock out dummy’s King, allowing for partner to return the suit through declarer’s Jack later on, thus reducing declarer’s number of tricks in the suit to one and increasing the chance that you can cash the suit.
It’s true that by leading the ♥K for this trick one surrounding play, you might give away an extra trick if East turns up with the King and the Jack is on dummy, or you could potentially blow your chance to cash the suit if partner has for instance K x, but these are unlikely scenarios.
It’s much more probable that the ♥K is in dummy for West’s show of strength and the fact that he might have taken a slower route to look for a minor suit contract had he not held any of the top three Heart honors. In this case the ♥Q lead won’t harm your chances, for declarer can’t have four Hearts else he would have responded with 1♥ to his partner’s 1♦ opening.
Whenever you’re on lead, remember to include not only the contents of your own hand, but also the auction and your plan for the defense as a whole, in your thought processes.
There are often clues to be drawn from your opponents’ bidding, after all their primary concern in the auction is to find the best spot, and they can hardly do that without divulging information to their partner, and you at the same time.
Your result so far: