Swiss Soiree by Ben Norton

A: ♠A. East must have long Hearts, so why didn’t he open a pre-empt? The usual objection is that he has a four-card major on the side. Suit quality isn’t so much of an issue at Love All. If East has four Spades and West at least two, the odds are good that your partner is short there, in which case you have a great plan to set this straight off the bat.

Kick off with the ♠A, planning to continue with the ♠3 if dummy has at least three Spades, as a suit preference signal for a Club return. A further Spade ruff will be your fourth trick. Say dummy has only two Spades. No problem. You’ll have time to shift to a Diamond at trick two. If declarer has Spade length, you won’t be setting up any useful discards for him.

On the actual hand, partner had a singleton Spade and none of his Diamond winners were standing up, declarer having 4=6=0=3 shape. The ♠A was the only lead to set the game.

Your result so far:

A: ♠K (or the ♠Q, if the King is your strong lead). There’s little reason not to lead your long suit, especially here, with dummy having advertised long Clubs, making it more attractive to get busy. The big question is, which Spade should you lead?

If you had five Spades, a small one would be best, serving to unblock the suit when partner has J x or A x. With only four, the chances of a block are smaller and your aim should shift towards pinning the Jack. Of course, a small one still has its advantages, even deceptive ones, but not enough to outweigh the embarrassment of losing a cheap trick to the ♠J.

It might even be that you should attack a suit other than Spades, in which case, you’ll be glad to have a trick in the bag.

A lot of players led a low Spade, catching dummy with ♠J x and declarer with A x, thus letting the game through.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. When the hand on your right has pre-empted, suggesting he doesn’t have much outside his long suit, it becomes much safer to defend actively, for it’s less likely you’ll be leading around to an unsupported honor.

It’s also attractive to lead Aces after auctions such as these, since you know very little about the hand. As such, a Club would be a stab in the dark. It could be that you have four tricks to take off the top in the pointed-suits, perhaps via a Diamond ruff or two, while a Club lead would allow declarer to discard his losers.

Lead an Ace to get a look at dummy whilst retaining the lead. The ♦A is a better choice than the ♠A, for you have more Diamonds and are therefore less likely to blow a trick in the suit, with someone rating to be short. By the same token, the ♦A might enable a defensive ruff or two. Imagine partner with the King-Jack of both suits, declarer holding the Queen. You can hardly expect to take three Diamond tricks, but in Spades, you may have three coming, as long as you start with a low one.

The ♦A didn’t get the job done this time. A Club lead was needed, so you could eventually set up partner’s ♣Q without surrendering a tempo. Bridge is like that. The best action in theory may not be right in practice.

Your result so far:

A: ♣2. Again, aggressive leads are the order of the day when the hand on your right is known to be weak. Even though you have a trump trick to come, you mustn’t sit back and give up the initiative. Any of the side-suit leads could be right, but you need less from partner to establish the Clubs, so go with one of them.

Bah. A Heart lead was needed on the layout, partner holding ♥K J 10 x over dummy’s Q x x. Declarer could still make his game, but only at double-dummy. Any other lead gave him an easy time.

Your result so far:

A: ♦4. Lead your five-card suit, unless you have a good reason not to! If you had nothing in the way of side-suit entries, you might try to find partner’s suit, but the ♥K may be all you need to set up and cash the Diamonds, which is certainly your best chance. Say you had one of your Diamonds in with the Clubs. A short-suit lead would then be much more appealing.

If you’re going to try the hero lead, a Heart is best, needing less from partner than a Spade does, but you have no guarantees that partner has five cards in either suit, even with the Stayman inference. You do have a five-card suit of your own, though. Give partner ♦K Q x or just ♦A x x x, and a Diamond could establish the whole suit. Either of those holdings in the majors wouldn’t be enough.

There’s still the issue of which Diamond to lead, though. Without the ♦8, the chances of a blockage outweigh the potential benefits of catching an honor in dummy, especially when you have only one potential entry. Go all out with the ♦4.

The straightforward Diamond lead was the only one to challenge the contract. Partner had ♦K J x over dummy’s Q 8 x. The first trick went to the Jack and Ace and declarer crossed over to dummy to finesse into your ♥K. The ♦10 continuation then put him to a guess. Did you start with ♦K 10 x x x, when playing the Queen is necessary, or ♦10 9 x x x, when he has to play small to block the suit. Tricky. Note that leading the ♦10 would give you no chance, for partner would have to play low, lest dummy’s eight gain power, then the suit would be well and truly blocked.

Your result so far: