Leads after long bidding sequence by Matthias Huberschwiller

A: ♦8 – North has bid a third suit forcing, probably because he does not have a stopper in spades. South, on the other hand, has promised to stop them.

With your tenace, if you lead a spade you can be nearly certain to give away a trick, with no certitude to establish one in return. Leading a diamond into dummy’s strength on the other hand could allow you to shoot through dummy.

Leading the eight as top of nothing will allow your partner to know that you have nothing in diamonds and he’ll be able to switch to a spade.


Your result so far:

A: ♠2 – Leading from Ace-King is very often an excellent lead. But here you have a lot of information about dummy’s hand.

He has five diamonds, four clubs and three spades. This means he has at most a singleton heart and declarer will want to ruff in the short hand.

In order to prevent him from doing so, the best thing you can do is to lead trump.


Your result so far:

A: ♦K – Your opponents have tried to go for a slam but then stopped in 4♠. Why?

According to the bidding, they lack a control in diamonds! This means that your partner has the ace. Thus you need to lead your doubleton king of diamonds, and you can even hope to ruff the third round.


Your result so far:

A: ♠2 – Dummy has announced a length in clubs. In this type of bidding sequence, the risk is a series of discards of declarer’s losers on dummy’s length.

In order to counter this you need to lead from a suit where you have honours, trying to get your tricks before it is too late.

Here, you need to lead your fourth best spade.


Your result so far:

A: ♠2 – South has shown a two-suiter in spades and clubs and you have a very strong opposition in clubs. Declarer will want to ruff them.

In order to prevent him from that, you need to lead a trump. With ace third, it is more interesting to start with a small one, especially if your partner has an honour.


Your result so far: