Leads against part scores by Matthias Huberschwiller

A: ♥2 – Your opponents have stopped in two hearts, but all their points are in the South hand.
If you underlead a king, there is a big risk that he has A-Q in the suit.
The less risky is to lead a trump and to wait for your partner to get on lead; as opponents don’t have enough to bid game, he’ll have some points. (At least six as opponents have less than 25!)


Your result so far:

A: ♣2 – North has passed over his partner’s second suit because he is short in spades with a small support in clubs.
What will declarer do?
He will want to ruff his spades with dummy’s trumps!
You need to prevent him from doing so and therefore, although you have an attractive lead in diamonds, you need to lead a trump!


Your result so far:

A: ♣2 – You have the choice between four bad leads, so you need to find the least of all evils!

Leading a trump from jack third bears the risk of giving a trick, so you need to exclude this possibility. As diamonds are dummy’s suit, you need to choose between spades and clubs.

The least dangerous is to underlead the smaller honor from the longer suit, so you need to lead your fourth best in clubs.


Your result so far:

A: ♠J – To lead a minor is not interesting, so you need to choose between hearts and spades. Against 3NT, you’d need to lead a heart because this would be the best chance to beat the contract.
Against 1NT, however, there is no hurry to immediately establish your long suit because you and your partner will get back on lead several times.
Therefore, you must not risk to give away a heart trick with your lead but rather lead from your sequence in spades and wait for your partner to play through a heart from his side.


Your result so far:

A: ♦J – At first glance, the singleton heart looks like an sbvious lead, but careful!
You need to have a closer look at your trump holding: With all those big trumps, you have no interest in ruffing, you need on the contrary lead from your long suit to get tricks elsewhere!


Your result so far: