Leading after a Gambling 3NT by Ben Norton

A: ♠A. Declarer’s minor is Clubs, that much is clear, but you’re still no closer to knowing which suit the defense can take tricks in. It’s likely that one of your red suits is cashing, but you don’t know which. Therefore you should lead the ♠A, to get a look at dummy while retaining the lead. It’s very unlikely that this will give anything away, since declarer can’t have a side-suit King. You’ll know what to do at trick two, both from partner’s signal and the dummy. It could even be that you’re cashing five Spade tricks.

Your result so far:

A: ♠4. This time it would be too dangerous to lead the ♠A. True, partner could have four cashing tricks in one of the red suits, but that is unlikely when you hold just low cards. The problem with kicking off with the ♠A is that it could easily block the suit. You don’t have any outside entries, so imagine what will happen when partner holds K Q x, K J x, Q x x, or even K Q J x on a 4-0 split. If you’re beating this then Spades is very likely to be your best source of tricks, thus you should focus on bringing the Spade suit in.

Your result so far:

A: ♥K. It’s unlikely that your side has five cashing tricks in one suit, and if you don’t then partner will have to hold at least two side-suit Aces to beat this, therefore leading a small card in any suit is too dangerous, it could be that you’re leading into dummy’s tenace. You must lead a Heart honor, to prevent giving declarer a cheap trick. You’ll have a good idea of what to do later on in the hand as well, whether it be at trick two or later.

Your result so far:

A: ♦8. Partner didn’t take any action in the Pass Out seat, and it doesn’t take a particularly great hand to make a penalty double of a Gambling 3NT, therefore dummy is going to be quite good, likely with values in all of the side-suits. As a result, it’s very unlikely that either of your major suit are cashing. You’d need partner to have ♥A Q x and dummy K x for a Heart to work, since you don’t have any outside entries. It’s much more likely that partner has a good Diamond holding, so you need to take this chance to lead through dummy’s likely Diamond honor. Hopefully partner will take five quick tricks with the aid of the Diamond suit.

Your result so far:

A: ♠A. In a similar vein to hand one, you should lead one of your Aces here, since a Diamond lead could just allow declarer to cash out if dummy has the Ace and King, or it could give him a tempo and set up a trick if there’s King-Jack on table. The big decision is which Ace to lead. There’s not much in it, but because you have more cards in Hearts than in Spades, there’s more chance of crashing an honor in partner’s hand if you lead the ♥A, so the ♠A is a little better.

When leading to a Gambling 3NT, be aware that the play will be a race for tricks. Declarer will be trying to get in and cash his tricks, so you must strive to cash yours straight away. With this in mind you should construct a plan of attack before you lead. If you have an Ace then in general it’s best to lead it to get a look at what’s going on, as it will rarely cost. If you don’t have an Ace then think about the most likely source of quick tricks for the defense, and lead that suit. If the decision is close, choose your strongest suit, bearing in mind that leading from a sequence of high honors can be effective because dummy is the one with the strength.

Your result so far: