Winter Wonderland by Ben Norton

A: ♠2. Dummy has announced short Hearts, so it’s no use leading them. You should look to establish a trick to take when you get in with the ♦Q, and between the black suits, a Spade is the more pressing lead. Dummy rates to have five Clubs and four Spades, so the Clubs will provide more discards than the Spades.

The Spades don’t seem such a problem, with your holding length there and dummy having only four. If partner has the ♣K, he’ll probably get that on any lead, but not so the ♠K. Lead a low Spade, the two being better than the 10, which might crash a short-suit honor in partner's hand.

A Spade lead was necessary to set the slam, with partner holding the ♠K behind the Ace.

Your result so far:

A: ♥A. Your best tactic is to lay down the ♥A, to get a look at dummy. The safer Diamond attack could potentially relinquish the lead, which might be costly if there’s a Club ruff in the offing. The ♥A is unlikely to give away a trick, for the ♥K rates to be with partner, and certainly not with the pre-emptor.

On the actual hand, anything but a trump, which is hardly attractive when you know they have a big fit, would succeed at double-dummy. You needed to score a Club ruff to take the maximum, and had to keep the lead before declarer could draw trumps.

Your result so far:

A: ♣4. There’s little reason not to lead your five-card suit, and the correct card is the ♣4. The Jack has little to gain when you have length and no supporting spot-cards. Rather, it’s likely to crash an honor in partner’s hand or block the suit.

A low Club would give declarer too much to do, but the ♣J would let the game through. Dummy had ♣KQ87xx and one outside entry, with declarer holding ♣A9, so a low one would limit him to four Club tricks, while a top card presented him with five, declarer being able to win the ♣A and overtake the ♣9 to drive out the ♣10.

Your result so far:

A: ♠5. You have soft values, equating to slow tricks, in each of the side-suits. At times like these, the aim should be to prevent declarer from taking ruffs, so your Queens and Jacks will score on the later rounds of the suits, when dummy is bereft of trumps. Besides, a Spade rates to be safe and a Heart won’t get you anywhere, with partner having at least five.

A trump lead was the only winner. Partner would gain the lead with the ♥A and return a trump, extracting dummy’s last Spade (yes, the raise was a fruity one on ♠Qx). Declarer would be left with two Hearts and two Diamonds to lose.

Your result so far:

A: ♥3. A Spade lead is out, but you could try pretty much anything else. A low Diamond could even be right, through dummy’s strength (say declarer has a King-Jack guess). A Club attack could work, setting up a couple of tricks there when partner has the ♣Q, but you have so many high cards that you shouldn’t rely on partner for anything.

For this reason, a Club lead is likely to give away a trick, a potentially important one seeing as declarer’s most likely shape is 5.4.1.3. There is but one fairly safe option. A low Heart rates to be passive, since partner doesn’t have very much. Also, even if you were to catch him with the ♥Q, you’d still be alright when declarer had only low cards, or both the ♥AK, or the ♥10, with your ♥9 surrounding.

On the actual deal, a low Diamond would work wonders, with dummy holding ♦KJxxx opposite a singleton (try getting that right as declarer), and a trump (!) would give nothing away, as would a Heart. The only dangerous leads were the ♦A or a Club, straight into declarer’s ♣AQ.

Your result so far: