Leading against a slam by Barry Rigal

A: ♠7: East’s jump to slam without using Blackwood suggests he may have a void in hearts. So rather than lead your ace, settle for the passive trump lead and hope your bits and pieces in the minors may add up to a trick or two. This is not an auction where a trump lead rates to lose your side’s trick in that suit. Yes, you might need to set up a winner in a minor before it goes on the hearts, but then East will have bid very optimistically.

Your result so far:

A: ♥3: Lead a low heart. On this auction (where all the side-suits bar one have been cue-bid) East’s five spades bid denied a heart control. So you can expect the king to be in dummy, and maybe your best bet to set the slam is to underlead your ace and force declarer into a guess for the ace-queen at trick one. Second choice: the attacking club lead.

Your result so far:

A: ♥5: Lead a low heart. Declarer’s decision to jump to slam without using Blackwood suggests a club void, so the club ace is likely not only to be ineffective but possibly dangerous too. Your real choice is between a passive diamond and an aggressive heart, with my decided preference being to attack against the small slam.

Your result so far:

A: ♥2: It looks easy enough to lead a top club; and that is what you would do against the small slam. But as we discussed above, the only reason for attacking against a grand slam is to dislodge an entry. Here your best shot to beat the grand slam is a heart ruff. Why didn’t partner make a Lightner double for dummy’s first bid suit? He was worried about a retreat to 7NT – and looking at your hand, his concern would be entirely justified!

Your result so far:

A: ♣5: You can imagine that to make the grand slam declarer will need to run diamonds, and the bad break there means that he may need to set up the suit after drawing trumps. Maybe declarer has six solid hearts and the spade ace and a top diamond, dummy six decent diamonds and the club ace. Declarer’s 13 tricks will be the two black aces, six hearts and five diamonds – unless you dislodge dummy’s entry to the diamonds by leading a club!

Your result so far: