The Big Game by Ben Norton

A: ♣K. You should lead a Club in response to partner’s lead directing double, but a low one or the Jack might not do. After all, you expect dummy to have a singleton for West’s cue-bid and partner to have the Ace for his Double. Thus, you’re entitled to only one Club trick and if partner wins it, you won’t regain the lead.

You have nothing outside Clubs, but partner may well have something sitting over dummy. You should therefore kick off with the ♣K, so you can retain the lead and switch through dummy at trick two. You may well need to cash three quick tricks and there’s no reason why partner can’t have the Ace-Queen of one of the majors sitting over dummy’s King. There’s no need to gamble which one, especially as partner will give you a clear suit preference signal on the ♣K.

Your result so far:

A: ♣4. You should go active. You have no surprises for declarer, who rates to have wasted strength in Diamonds on this auction (indeed, you need this to be the case if you’re to beat this). Therefore, the ‘safe’ lead of the ♦J is anything but. Give declarer ♦K Q x and partner the Ace, not unlikely, then you’ll be setting up two tricks for declarer on which he can throw dummy’s losers.

Lead an aggressive Club, which needs much less from partner than a Heart, in the hope of setting up tricks before declarer can establish the red suits.

Your result so far:

A: ♠2. Dummy presumably has a very distributional hand to justify forcing to game. You should aim to cash tricks in one of the black suits, but a Club is unlikely to work given that East overcalled 1NT, suggesting he has a Club stopper. Best try a Spade, then. It might be that dummy’s Spades will go on the Clubs otherwise.

Even though the usual arrangement is to lead fourth-highest from an honor, this situation presents an exception. How many Spades you have doesn’t rate to be of much importance to partner. It’s much more pressing to tell him you have an honor. After all, if dummy has ♠K x and partner the ♠A J, it might be unclear to him that you have the Queen on the lead of the ♠6, a fairly high spot card which could be from ♠7 6 2, for example. Partner might go up with the ♠A so as to not risk dummy’s Spades going on the Clubs. That would not be ideal. Lead the ♠2 to make it clear you have an honor.

Your result so far:

A: ♦2. It’s clear that a Club trick isn’t standing up, but even if it is, you’ll be able to cash it later. You must not lose the initiative by leading a Club right away. You could seek to establish a Spade trick for partner that you can cash when you get in with the ♥A, but that would require dummy to have the ♠A, which is very likely, and partner to have the ♠K, not too likely. Also, for there to be an urgent need for a Spade lead, dummy would have to hold a very long Diamond suit. Even then, your ♦10 might serve as a road block.

Best is to lead a Diamond in the hope of giving partner a ruff. This will merely require partner to have a singleton Diamond, which is far from unlikely, and two trumps. Try the ♦2, in case declarer has a trick one guess for the ♦K. There’s no need to be honest when it can’t hurt partner. In fact, there’s a strong argument for leading random spot cards against slams, except when you have the weak hand, in which case partner, the one with the decisions to make because he has the high cards, may need accurate information to find the right defense.

Your result so far:

A: ♠A. Spades is the suit you’re most likely to run, needing as little as the ♠Q from partner, but you shouldn’t place all your bets on one horse. The Clubs could also provide enough tricks. Therefore, you should lead not a small Spade, but the ♠A. This way, you can retain the lead and decide how best to continue when you have more information.

Note that the normal drawback of blocking the Spades by leading a top one doesn’t apply here as you have entries in the Club suit. Only if declarer has eight tricks in the red suits, very unlikely after the invitational sequence, would this fail. What’s more, South’s failure to convert to 4♥, suggesting he has only a doubleton, coupled with your own small doubleton Heart, suggests the suit isn’t running, so there’s need to cash the Spades straight away. It could well be right to attack Clubs.

Your result so far: