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 Leading Against 1NT-3NT by Ben Norton

Leading Against 1NT-3NT

One of the most unhelpful auctions to lead against is 1NT-3NT. The opponents have given very little away about their distributions except that they’ll probably both be balanced. However, there is one substantial inference you can draw. The opponents haven’t investigated a major suit fit via Stayman, therefore they probably won’t have a fit in Hearts or Spades, making a major suit lead much more attractive.

As South on these five questions see if you can find the lead that’s most likely to break these 3NT contracts after East opens a 15-17 No-trump and West raises to 3NT.

Question 1

  Your Hand
 A J 6
 10 8 4 3
 9 6
 J 10 5 3
 
Q: 1 - What’s your plan?

SouthWestNorthEast
---1NT
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 3. The choice is between your long suits - Hearts and Clubs, and having already diagnosed that you should strive to lead a major suit against this auction, a Heart lead is more likely to find partner with length there and thus set the contract.

It’s true that your Club suit is slightly better than your Hearts, since you’ll only need one honor from partner to establish two tricks in the suit most of the time. However, since partner rates to have Heart length more often than Club length, a Heart lead is much safer and stands to establish slow tricks in the suit.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
 K 7 6 4
 A 10 8 7
 8 4 3
 10 8
 
Q: 2 - What are your thoughts?

SouthWestNorthEast
-PassPass1NT
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 4. Even though your Hearts are better than your Spades, a Spade lead rates to defeat the contract more often.

For a Heart lead to set up tricks for the defense you need less from partner than for a Spade lead. However, there’s a rule that states “never lead from A x x x against 3NT” – Dyke’s Law. Of course it could be right to lead from that holding on occasion but generally it’s best to lead another long suit.

This is because if you have three tricks in the A x x x suit then you need two tricks outside of the suit to beat the contract, meaning here you can switch to a Heart after getting in with your first side suit winner, expecting to cash the suit when you get in with your second side suit winner, if a Spade lead doesn’t work initially.

Essentially a Spade lead is better because there’s scope for establishing more tricks there than in Hearts. The K isn’t a trick yet, whereas the A is. If a Spade lead is wrong you’ll probably have time to establish the Heart suit before declarer takes nine tricks, whereas if a Heart lead is wrong declarer may have the tempo he needs.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 A 8 3
 9 8 2
 K J 6
 10 7 6 5
 
Q: 3 - What about this time?

SouthWestNorthEast
---1NT
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 8. Here you should spurn a Club lead in favour of a major suit lead, since your Clubs are poor and there’s more chance of finding partner with length in a major. But it’s difficult to know which major to lead.

A Spade could be right, since you could very easily be establishing tricks for partner, but it could equally give a cheap trick away. Even though partner probably has Spade length he isn’t guaranteed to, and a Spade lead could just run around to declarer’s stray honor. A Heart has less offensive potential than a Spade, but it has the advantage that it will practically never give a trick away.

In a similar vein to the last problem, if partner has length in Hearts it’s probably necessary to attack the suit now to get it going, but if partner has Spade length then since you hold the Ace of that suit, you could well be alright providing the defense switches to a Spade later on. Another advantage of leading your second-highest Heart from 9 8 x is that since the Eight is so high a spot card, partner will know that you don’t have an honor in the suit, which could help him with the later defense.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 K 4 2
 8 3 2
 8 5
 9 7 5 4 3
 
Q: 4 - What do you think?

SouthWestNorthEast
--Pass1NT
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 2. Conversely, here a Spade lead is indicated, mainly because of the overall weakness of your hand, which is exactly why a Club lead from your five-card suit is doomed to failure.

Holding such a bad hand, you can hardly expect to have enough entries to establish the Club suit, never mind cash it, therefore a major suit lead is your best shot. Because the hand on your right is known to be the stronger of the two opposition hands, holding a poor hand behind declarer is bad news. Declarer rates to have most of the high cards, thus any finesses which he needs to take will succeed. This in itself calls for an active lead, and a Spade is the most active since you might be able to cash five quick tricks there.

A Heart lead could be right if partner has a lot of values, in that a Heart won’t give away a trick, but he is a Passed hand so that’s not very likely. The 3 lead could also put partner off track because it’s a low card and he may think you have an honor, whereas the lead of the Eight could make him think you have a doubleton, so that’s hardly convenient.

All in all the indications are that you need to establish tricks quickly because you have a very weak hand, and even though a Spade lead could concede a cheap trick, it gives you the best chance of setting up tricks since you don’t need a great deal from partner in the suit.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 J
 A 9 8 7
 A Q 6
 K 10 9 3 2
 
Q: 5 - What’s the plan?

SouthWestNorthEast
---1NT
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 3. Partner will have nothing, so it’s up to you to bring about declarer’s downfall. A Club lead carries the best hope for the defense, but which card should you lead?

Declarer’s main trick sources will be Spades and Diamonds, but any tricks he has in Spades will be ready to cash, so he’ll play on Diamonds whenever he gains the lead. In this way you will probably score two Diamond tricks and a Heart trick, and you need two more tricks. You won’t take two more Heart tricks, so you must hope to take two tricks in Clubs.

It’s traditional to lead the Ten from this holding, mainly to pick up an honor in dummy when partner also has an honor, but seeing as that isn’t possible here, the Three is the best card. This means you can pick up the suit from your side of the table when there’s H H doubleton opposite H x x x either way around in the opponents’ hands. Your fourth and fifth Clubs are so small that when one of the opponents has length in the suit, you need to retain your Ten and Nine for when you can pin one of their honors.

When leading against the auction 1NT-3NT, strive to create a plan for the defense. In general it’s best to lead your long suit unless you don’t have enough entries, in which case try to find your partner’s suit or lead the suit which your high card is in, since that is the suit you’ll be able to set up the most tricks in. Keep in mind that partner will have more major suit cards than minor suit cards most of the time, thus when you have a choice between a major and a minor, opt for the major, and when you have a decision between both majors, one should generally prefer x x x to H x x and K x x x/Q x x x to A x x x.

Your result so far:
Open Question

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What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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