Q: 4 - Would you prefer to lead a major suit or minor suit after this auction?
South | West | North | East |
- | 1♣ | Pass | 1NT |
Pass | Pass | Pass | |
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: