Outstanding OCBL by Ben Norton

A: ♦A. You can see two tricks. The other could come from any of the three side-suits. If partner has the ♠A, that can almost certainly wait. You should therefore focus on the red suits.

West presumably has five cards in each rounded suit, so partner’s minor is Diamonds. It therefore rates to be safe to lay down the ♦A. If partner has the ♦K, he will encourage with a positive attitude signal. If not, you can shift to either a Spade, hoping partner has the ♠A, or, more likely, a Heart, paving the way for a second-round ruff when partner has 5.1.5.2 distribution.

By leading the ♦A, you keep all your options open.

Partner did indeed have a singleton Heart, and it was necessary to lead a Heart, or the ♦A followed by a Heart, then give partner his ruff upon gaining the lead with the ♣A.

Your result so far:

A: ♥3. It’s unlikely that you can set your Clubs up, with East’s holding at least three cards there, and a Spade lead would be dangerous. You should follow the sound principle of establishing winners in the strong hand, the one with the entries. That’s North.

Partner should have a decent suit for his overcall at game all. Try a Heart lead. If nothing else, it won’t give anything away.

On the actual deal, dummy had a seven-card Diamond suit and the doubleton ♠Q for an outside entry, with your King being onside. Partner did have the ♦A to stop the suit and destroy the Diamond link, so it was necessary to attack the late entry to dummy in Spades. Either a Spade lead, or a Heart lead to partner’s Ace followed by a Spade shift, would set the game.

Your result so far:

A: ♦A. You might as well table a top Diamond to get a look at dummy and plan the defense from there. It’s unlikely to hurt, for the ♦Q rates to be on your right.

A low Diamond lead could be necessary when declarer has the likes of ♦Q x x x, but that might give away the ninth trick or blow a tempo. If the suit is split 5-3-3-2 around the table with ♦Q x x on your right, you’ll want to get partner in to return a Diamond through the Queen.

It could be that you should be attacking one of the majors, likely Spades. In that case, you may need to get onto that suit before you lose the lead. The ♦A will work fine then.

On the full deal, you had five Diamond tricks to cash! Dummy had ♦Q x opposite x x x in declarer’s hand. Any other lead would give the contract.

Your result so far:

A: ♣4. A doubleton lead rates to be ineffective when you have two small trumps. You’d need partner to have a lot in Hearts to either set up tricks or take a ruff, and the Heart lead could give the layout of the suit away.

A Club is your best shot. It’s safer, being from a five-card suit, and partner is more likely to be able to read what you’ve led from. Rather than return the suit, he may well find a killing Diamond shift.

That’s exactly what happened on the full deal. Partner had the ♣A and ♦K, with Diamonds splitting 3-3 in the opponents’ hands. A Heart lead would let declarer off the hook, being able to discard a Diamond on a Heart.

Your result so far:

A: ♥6. It’s normally best to lead passively against No-trump slams, but here, you know that West has long Diamonds and East long Clubs. Thus, declarer will have plenty of tricks at his disposal after knocking out partner’s hoped-for minor-suit stopper.

You must look to establish tricks of your own, and the Heart suit offers your best chance. Not only is Hearts the unbid suit, but you need less from partner to set up a trick, requiring him to hold a Queen (or potentially a Jack, if declarer has a guess), while a King would be needed for a Spade lead to be right.

Partner had the ♦A, which declarer had to knock out, and the ♥Q J. Only a Heart lead would break the slam.

Your result so far: