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 Follow your Nose (Part I) by Ben Norton

Follow your Nose (Part I)

There are certain auctions which scream for the lead of a particular suit, and even though every situation in Bridge should be considered in its own context, you’ll generally do best to lead the indicated suit.

As South on these five questions you will have to sniff out the hole in your opponents’ armour, based on the auction alone with no cards in your hand. Which suit does your nose tell you to lead?


Question 1

  Your Hand
 
 
 
 
 
Q: 1 - Reminder: there are no cards in this quiz. Which suit will you lead?

SouthWestNorthEast
-1Pass1
Pass3Pass3NT
PassPassPass


 Your choice:
A: A Club. Here your best shot is to lead the unbid suit – Clubs. On these types of auctions the 3NT bidder doesn’t always have a double stopper in the fourth suit, especially when there wasn’t an artificial bid available before 3NT. Indeed most of the time he had to bid 3NT because it was his side’s last chance to do so. Besides, with Spade length on your right and length in both red suits on your left, Clubs rates to hold the most promising source of tricks for the defense.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
 
 
 
 
 
Q: 2 - What's your choice here?

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass1Pass2
Pass3Pass3NT
PassPassPass


 Your choice:
A: A Spade. Despite finding a 5-3 Heart fit your opponents have chosen to play in 3NT, in this way they must have the unbid suit well and truly sewn up. Declarer wouldn’t have suggested 3NT as a place to play without a very good Diamond holding. Therefore your best shot to set up some tricks lies in dummy’s suit – Spades. Leading through the length is more appealing than leading around to it, especially if you have short Spades, since that means partner will have length behind the dummy.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 
 
 
 
 
Q: 3 - Would you prefer to lead a major suit or minor suit after this auction?

SouthWestNorthEast
-1Pass1NT
PassPassPass


 Your choice:
A: A major. Declarer has denied four cards in either major suit with his 1NT response, thus you should strive to lead a Heart or a Spade, because partner rates to have length there and even if he doesn’t, it won’t often cause too much harm since declarer won’t be playing on that suit for his tricks anyway. Of course if you have a five-card minor then that stands to set up more tricks for the defense, it’s just when you have a choice between leads that a major suit lead should be preferred.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 
 
 
 
 
Q: 4 - Would you prefer to lead a major suit or minor suit after this auction?


SouthWestNorthEast
-1Pass1NT
PassPassPass


 Your choice:
A: A major. Similarly to the 1-1NT auction, a major suit lead is indicated here as well, but this time you shouldn’t be as quick to do so. It’s true that declarer won’t have length in either major, but he could have bid 1 instead with four Diamonds. In this way, either declarer has length just in Clubs, in which case he might have raised his partner’s suit anyway, or he has four Diamonds and chose to bid 1NT, meaning he has tenaces in both majors and a major suit lead could easily give a trick away.

With Diamond length and poor holdings in one or both of the major suits East would have preferred to respond with 1, allowing his side to find a fit in a minor or to right-side a No-trump contract with the lead coming up to the stronger hand. Whereas if his partner had opened 1 he wouldn’t have had that option. Therefore you shouldn’t lead a major suit as aggressively against the auction 1-1NT, especially from patchy holdings.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 
 
 
 
 
Q: 5 - Would you prefer to lead a minor suit or a Spade here?

SouthWestNorthEast
-1Pass1NT
PassPassPass


 Your choice:
A: A Spade. Here declarer has denied Spade length, so a Spade lead stands to establish some tricks for the defense as partner probably has length there. However, in a similar vein to the previous two questions, with most hands with five good Spades partner would have overcalled 1 over 1, thus don’t stretch to lead from vulnerable three-card holdings such as H x x.

In general if you’re stuck between a choice of leads try to consider the options your opponents had in the bidding. This will help you figure out where the weak spot is and then you can tailor your choice of lead as appropriate.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Overall Results

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