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 Leads from a strong hand by Matthias Huberschwiller

It is your lead. In this quizz, you have the majority of the points of your side.
What should you lead when your partner has a hand with close to zero points?
One sure thing: don't expect much help from partner!

Question 1

  Your Hand
 K J 6 3 2
 A 3
 K 9 2
 Q J 2
 
Q: 1 - As West, what do you lead?
SouthWestNorthEast
1 NTPass3 NTPass
PassPass


 Your choice:
A: 3 - Your partner has certainly nothing.
What is your only chance to beat this contract?
The spades! Therefore you need to lead the fourth best and hope to establish them.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
 K J 6 2
 J 10 3
 A Q 6
 K 7 6
 
Q: 2 - As West, what do you lead?
SouthWestNorthEast
1 NTPass3 NTPass
PassPass


 Your choice:
A: J - You still have as many points as in question 1, but you only have four spades.
The chance of establishing a trick from length has become very small.
The best hope to beat the contract is to avoid giving away the ninth trick and hope that South does not find nine all by himself! Therefore you need to find a neutral lead, the J.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 A 10 2
 5
 Q J 9 6 2
 A Q 4
 
Q: 3 - As West, what do you lead?
SouthWestNorthEast
1Pass *2Pass
2 NTPass4Pass
PassPass


* Bidding with a suit that weak and only fifth is not a good idea, even though you have 13 points. There is not much to win but a lot to lose if North has the diamonds behind you!

 Your choice:
A: Q- Your partner has nearly nothing, how do you think you could get him on lead to get a ruff? It will be impossible!
Therefore, you must not lead your singleton heart, which bears the risk to even help declarer, but from your sequence in diamonds, trying to establish a trick there.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 6
 K J 6 2
 A J 6 2
 A Q 4 3
 
Q: 4 - As West, what do you lead?
SouthWestNorthEast
1Double3 *Pass
4PassPassPass


* Preemptive raise with four trumps.

 Your choice:
A: 6 - Partner, your lead! Well, unfortunately this is not possible, you'll need to chose a lead!
Leading your singleton trump can be bad if your partner holds Qxx, even if declarer could always decide to finesse because of your double.
But leading any of the other suits can be equally terrible because the points are in declarer's hand. As your partner has nothing, even a heart lead bears the risk of giving away a trick if N/S have the ace and queen.
In the end, it is the trump lead which is the least dangerous, hoping that all your points in the other suits will permit beating the contract later!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 J 10 9 8
 A 6 4 2
 7
 J 4 3 2
 
Q: 5 - As West, what do you lead?
SouthWestNorthEast
3Pass4 NTPass
5 *Pass6Pass
PassPass


* Two keycards, with the Queen of Clubs.

 Your choice:
A: A - You look at your two possible tricks with pleasure (a trump and the A), and happily lead the J - and declarer discards his heart loser on dummy's spades!
Careful, against a slam, when you hold the setting trick in your hand, you need to lead an ace to avoid a discard!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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