All eight declarers faced with this problem on Monday went wrong. None of them stopped to think what holding North would have for the lead of the six. The lead cannot be fourth best, and the alternative system lead is second best from a bad suit. What do we think is happening here?  The answer is the latter, and if you deduce that South has the queen, and rise with the king - you will earn yourself an extra trick on this hand.

Those Norths who led a small spade rather than the six gave declarer no clue as to the layout, and when that happens, playing the ♠T is inevitable.  The pattern of second best from a bad suit can help partner at time, but it can also help declarer. On this hand too, with two side entries West positively wants partner to continue spades, and that too encouages leading small at trick one.

The winning choice is a club lead, and it was found.  But why?  

All the suits held have the potential to give away a trick, and there is a real worry that with a diamond fit delivering tricks for declarer, there is a need to set up the defensive tricks quickly.  The best chance of setting up tricks is finding a 5-card suit for the defence.  What suit will that be?

 It is unlikely to be spades as partner had the chance to bid 1♠ and didn't. It is not likely to be hearts after that was bid by East.  So the suit has to be clubs.  Hence the lead of ♣ 2 which meant that when the diamond ace was dislodged, the clubs were there to run. Of the Norths on lead, only 3/12 found the club lead. At the other table, 3N made to give the Gloucestershire team 13 imps.

 Unless East has an honour in hearts it will be immaterial which heart West chooses to lead.  However, if East happens to have the jack, the queen will be the superior lead fror three reasons.  First, declarer may misjudge the lie of the suit.  Secondly, the presence of the nine in West's hand means that declarer's options in the suit will be restricted.  Finally, if declarer does go wrong the effect will be to create a vital entry in East's hand.  This last consideration is of prime importance, since in this type of hand West is all too likely to find himself repeatedly on play.

In this example, declarer wins the ♥Q lead, crosses to dummy with a spade and finesses a club to West's queen.  A second heartis won by East.  Appreciating that his own hand is now dead, East switches to a diamond and now the contract is doomed.  

If West had started with a low heart, East will never gain the lead and declarer is likely to bring home the contract without ever being seriously threatened.

The tip from the last 2 day's hands is that instead of always pushing out an unimaginative small card from 3 or 4 to an honour, you should consider whether to lead the honour.

It is normal to lead small from a suit of 3 or more cards headed by an unsupported honour.  There are however some basic situations where the lead of a high card may produce better results.  In a competitive situation, a defender on lead with Kxxx of his partner's suit and few other assets may well start with the K in order to retain the lead and find the killing switch through dummy.  

Today's hand requires a little more thought.  The opponents bidding suggests that they have little to spare.  Furthermore, South is unenthusiastic about North's spades.  For that reason it is good play to attack with a spade,  No other lead appeals and declarer may be embarrassed by an early attack on dummy's entry.  Having reached that conclusion, the best card to lead is the King.

Declarer may misjudge the lie of the suit - or the King may win a trick by force.

Look at the full deal.  Declarer naturally ducked the opening lead and received a nasty shock when at the next trick, the Jack of Spades loast to the Queen.  He elected to discard a heart.  Then a heart switch and continuation held declarer to 6 tricks.  At the other table, after a heart lead, declarer scrambled home with 2 hearts, 2 diamonds, 4 clubs and a spade.

You didn't know that the fate of the board depends on your opening lead.  The default might feel like a QJ9 lead but you need to ask what that is going to achieve. To have a chance at any tricks in the suit, you will need partner to have three diamonds, and you'll need the opposing diamonds to be split 2-2. This is asking a lot.

From a different perspective, most of the defensive strength is in partner's hand, so what about leading partner's suit? If the opponents have not missed an 8-card major fit then partner will have at least four cards in each major.  Can we find partner's best suit?  There aren't really any clues but you might reason that partner is more likely to read the ♥8 as a short suit lead than the ♠6 and lead that..

Looking at all the hands now, you can see that this is the winning choice, and it was a logical choice too.  

What about the opponents' bidding? They chose to ignore a possible 5-3 spade fit, and to only play in spades with a 5-4 fit. - very reasonable when holding about 30 pts between the two hands as a 5-3 fit probably won't generate any extra tricks. Unlucky for them to have you on lead!

You know that you hold virtually all your sides assets so it looks like a club is the only suit worth attacking. You could hope that partner holds the ♣J in which case a low club lead will likely set up enough club winners to beat the contract, but that is putting all your eggs in one basket. If you lead the ♣Q you will score a goal when South hold ♣Jx, but it won't be so good if North holds ♣Kx and South has ♣Jxx. How can you tell? The best lead is the ♣A to have a look at dummy, before continuing appropriately. This lead gains whenever partner has the Jack, or declarer or dummy has Hx. If the club suit is Kxx with North and Jxx in South, you are never going to beat the contract whatever you do. 

Partner's double is Lightner, asking for a lead that he can ruff. You might think he is asking for a heart or a diamond as you have length in both suits. However, this analysis makes no sense. Declarer can only be bidding like this with a second suit that will provide tricks. This suit can only be clubs, and a club lead is required. Declarer's hand was ♠AKQJTxxx,♥ -,♦ -,♣ AKQJx

The key is what hand could opener possibly have?  There is only one hand which makes sense  ♠A ♥A ♦AKQT98765 ♣AK.    Looking at this we can see that we will - unless we lead the suit - make a diamond trick and whatever else we can cash at that point.  A club sets up no extra trick for us.  A spade sets of one extra trick for us.  

But what about a heart?  As long as we don't lead the king we get at least one heart trick.  If we lead the two is depends on who has the queen, but also who has the ten. We lose by leading out the jack only when partner has a singleton or doubleton queen, but in scenarios like the one shown - it can be worth extra tricks for us to unblock at trick one. So this has to be the right lead.

Did you find the ♥J lead?

When partner doubles in this situation, he is showing a good holding in dummy's suit and this is the suit you should lead. On this auction, you might say that North has not bid a suit, but in reality, North has shown 4 spades and hence partner is calling for a spade lead. A further indication if one were needed is that East did not make a lead directing double of 2 clubs, so he won't be doubling on the strength of his club suit. Also you have length holdings in the red suits so East can't have enough in those suits to make him think that he could beat 3NT. Lead the ♠Q and watch declarer go down. Don't forget to thank partner for his action. If he hadn't doubled you would have been unlikely to find the killing lead.

Leading partner's suit could not be criticised (except perhaps for lack of imagination). However, since you have a nasty surprise for declarer in the trump suit, and since on the bidding, the ♣A is most likely in dummy. a good case can be made for attcaking an option with lead of ♣7. If the declarer can afford a club loser on a normal trump break, he may well refuse the finesse and regret it later. If the full hand is as shown, declarer will refuse the finesse for fear of losing a couple of ruffs. He will probably put up the ♣A and play trumps. 

Conditions for deception are ideal on this hand. West knows that his partner has very little in the way of high cards, and the Queen of hearts is likely to be well placed for declarer. In situations like this , you should look no further than the ♦3 as your opening lead. Declarer will have to decide whether to risk the heart finesses or knock out the ♣A in order to come to 9 tricks. If he blieves you have led from a four card suit, then knocking out the club becomes very attractive.  Had the ♦5 been led, declarer might well have decided that the heart finesse represented his best chance. 

You can be certain from the bidding that declarer has at most one diamond. Your obvious lead is a top diamond because if you fail to cash your diamond trick, it may be disappearing on dummy's spade suit. However, you should use the opportunity to exercise some deception with your lead. Try the effect of starting with the ♦Q. When this holds you continue with a low card in the suit. South is now likely to place East with the top diamonds and may well guess the hearts wrong eventually. Of course you cannot tell how the hand may work out, but when you can fool declarer at no cost to partner, you should do so. In the long run, this must reap benefits.