MontreAlt by Ben Norton

A: ♠9. Partner is a heavy favorite to hold the ♠K for his passed-hand raise, which is surely based on five-card support. Thus, you can see two major-suit tricks. The other will probably come from Hearts, but you can’t afford to attack the suit from your side of the table in case declarer has the ♥K. What’s more, you must attack Hearts right away, before declarer can get the Clubs going for discards.

The solution is to put partner in with the ♠K for a Heart shift, but how can you persuade him to take his ♠K? The ♠Q lead won’t do. You could try the Jack, but the clearest card is the ♠9. In traditional methods, the nine is only led from shortness against suit contracts, which can’t be the case here. Partner will therefore read it as a suit preference signal for Hearts, the higher suit, especially when he questions your motives for underleading the ♠A.

Partner did indeed hold the ♠K and won the first trick to play a Heart through declarer’s King. On any other defense, the game would make.

Your result so far:

A: ♦6. After investigating a slam, East-West have suddenly stopped short. That can only be because they’re missing a Diamond control. West denied the ♦A, ♦K or short Diamonds by failing to cue-bid the suit over 4♣, and East has presumably bid 5♣ because he doesn’t have a control there either. He would make a more encouraging call otherwise.

You can infer that partner has the two top Diamonds and that they will cash, so you had better lead a Diamond before one of your tricks goes away. The Spades can wait. Declarer did bid them.

A Diamond lead was needed to set the contract. Partner took the ♦A K and you had a Spade trick to come. On a top Spade lead, declarer could pitch his Diamond losers on dummy’s Hearts.

Your result so far:

A: ♥5. It’s rarely right to lead a singleton trump, but it’s your best option here. Declarer should have very good Hearts for his bidding, in which case a trump rates to be safe, and may well cut down on ruffs in dummy. Certainly, a Spade or Diamond lead would be too dangerous, while a Club could gift declarer an entry to dummy with the ♣A facing a void.

A trump was the winning lead on the actual deal. Declarer had nine tricks in his own hand, with the ♣A in dummy for a tenth. The problem was that he couldn’t reach it, and the trump lead prevented him from ruffing a Diamond in dummy, so declarer was one down.

Your result so far:

A: ♥9. Just as in the first problem, you should essay a suit preference underlead, hoping to get partner in, for a ruff this time. Partner is fairly likely to have the ♥K, so this defense represents your best shot. You hope to score the ♥K, a Diamond ruff and another trick, presumably in the minors. To lead a top Heart could break the only quick link to partner’s hand, allowing declarer to draw trumps.

In practice, the low-Heart lead worked well. Dummy was void and declarer ruffed, rather than running the lead around to his doubleton King. He could not then prevent you from scoring a ruff for the setting trick. Strangely, your underlead turned out to be safer than laying down the ♥A, for East’s ♥K would definitely score then.

Your result so far:

A: ♠A. Partner’s pass is likely based on a five-card Spade suit. Given that he has enough to double 1NT, if he held only four Spades, he would have bid 1NT over 1♠, rather than risk playing a 4-2 fit.

Therefore, you should eschew the safe ♦J for a top Spade, perhaps ready to cash the whole suit. Players have been known to balance with 1NT on the likes of J x x here. At the very least, you’ll get a look at dummy and can decide on your defensive plan from there.

On the full deal, partner had ♠Q x x x x and the ♥A K, so there were nine major-suit tricks available. A minor-suit lead would see declarer cash eight tricks of his own. Your choice of lead swung the score between 800 and -380.

Your result so far: