Leading from Weakness by Ben Norton

A: ♥9. It’s better to try and find partner’s long suit than to lead your own.

Since you don’t have any entries to your hand, it would be futile to lead your own suit, for you’d never be able to cash your Spades even if you can establish them. Partner has the strength, as such you should strive to lead his longest suit in the hope of setting up winners in his hand, which is full of entries.

Here your shortest suit is Hearts, thus partner is more likely to have length in Hearts than any other suit, especially as the opponents haven’t investigated a major suit fit. Another good effect of the ♥9 lead is that, due to the Nine being a high spot card, partner will realise that you’re leading from a short suit, so he'll be able to count the hand and plan the defense more accurately.

Your result so far:

A: ♦J. This time you have a high sequence in Diamonds, which is an appealing holding to lead from.

This is the one and only time you’re going to be on lead, so you’ll only have one chance to lead through dummy’s high cards into partner’s hoped-for tenace. Here you have four low cards in each major, meaning it’s unlikely that a major suit lead will do much damage to declarer, since partner doesn’t rate to have length there (even if he does have a long major, you might not find the right one).

Nor would it be very advisable to lead from your doubleton Club, because unlike the last example, there’s nothing to suggest that partner has length in this suit.

Your best shot is the ♦J, hoping to find partner with some high cards in Diamonds. If this is the case you may succeed not only in establishing tricks when partner has length, but also if partner has a tenace sitting over dummy (e.g. A Q x). This way you’ll pick up three tricks in the suit by leading the Jack through dummy’s King.

Your result so far:

A: ♥10. Despite holding a high-card in Spades, your best chance lies with a safe Heart lead from 10 9 x.

With poor holdings in both minors the choice is between the major suits once again, due to the fact that partner rates to have length in those suits from the auction. A Spade lead from J x x could work if your Jack is supporting partner’s honors (e.g. K Q x x), but it’s a risky holding to lead from because you could easily be giving away a trick or opening up a frozen suit if partner has the Queen.

There’s no indication that partner will be longer in Spades than in Hearts, so the safer Heart lead is better. Leading from a short suit headed by a sequence of non-honors is very unlikely to give anything away, and may even serve to pick up an honor in dummy (e.g. if there’s Q x on table under partner’s K J x x).

Your result so far:

A: ♠2. Your best chance of establishing some tricks lies in the Spade suit, due to your high honor there.

Again a major suit lead looks the most promising, with both Hearts and Spades having their benefits. A Heart lead is more passive, but since the Ten is unsupported it could blow the suit (e.g. if partner has K x x with the Ace and Nine in declarer’s hand), whereas a Spade lead is more active, since it stands to gain more if you hit partner with good Spades but it’s more likely to give a trick away if partner’s Spades are patchy.

Since there’s risk attached to both a Heart and a Spade lead, it’s best to choose the one with the bigger upside, which is definitely a Spade. Your King will support partner’s Spade cards if you’re right, and you need less from partner for a Spade lead to be effective than for a Heart lead.

Your result so far:

A: ♣Q. Here you have a fair chance of setting up tricks in your long suit if partner has some Club values.

Despite having no side-suit entry to your hand, you could still run the Club suit if partner has the right cards, because you have two honors in the suit. It’s true that a Club lead could easily give away a trick, but the advantages of it far outweigh the downsides.

If you had a short holding (singleton or doubleton) in a major, then you may consider leading that suit because partner could easily have five cards there. However, you have three low in each major and there’s not much to be gained even if partner does have length in the major suits.

A Diamond lead is a bit of a gamble, especially seeing as there’s no sign that partner has five cards there (the same inference for major suit leads doesn’t apply to minor suit leads because the opponents don’t/can’t investigate minor suit fits) and the Ten could be a key card in that it could take away a guess for declarer or could pick up the suit completely (e.g. if partner holds the Queen over the King-Jack in dummy with the Ace and Nine in declarer’s hand).

A Club lead will work wonders if partner has Club values. Even if he doesn’t have length you could be picking up dummy’s honor. In this way it’s best to scorn the natural lead of a low card from this suit (if you had the Nine or Ten then the Queen would be better, but from Q J x x x or Q J x x a low one is more likely to work), because the main benefit of leading a low one is to not block the suit when partner has H x, but here if partner has H x then it doesn’t matter if you block the suit – you’ll never get in again either way.

The lead of the Queen is preferable, for it could crush dummy’s King and it will enable partner to place the honors and thus gain a more precise count of the hand.

When you find yourself on lead against 3NT with a very poor hand, as a general principle try and find your partner’s long suit. Consider these factors:

- On the auction 1NT-3NT or the like, partner is more likely to have major suit length than minor suit length
- If you have a short holding in a major, then that’s likely to be partner’s five card suit
- Leading from short holdings in minor suits could work just as well, but are less likely to, and could easily expose the suit to declarer
- Leading your own long suit is a good idea if you think you can establish it and if you have entries, either in or outside your suit, to cash the winners later. If not then try to lead partner’s suit
- With equal length in the suits you’re thinking of leading, compare the advantages and disadvantages of each lead. In general if there’s a much bigger upside to one lead then select that suit, but if the upside isn’t much greater, try the more passive option
- Leading from sequences could serve to pick up dummy’s honors underneath partner’s tenace
- Leading from three low cards is more attractive than four low cards, but leading from H x x x is much more appealing than H x x, as you only need partner to have honors for the lead to work, not necessarily length, and if partner does have length your lead will be more effective if you have length as well

Your result so far: