BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

WHAT would you lead from this hand after the above auction?

The obvious and correct lead is ♣ Q. Yet very little is obvious to players who have just learnt the game and are struggling to recognise and understand the myriad situations that arise.

When I put this question recently to a group of five relative beginners, only two got it right. The other options were one for a fourth best

♣ 10, and one for the ♣ A and another for an imaginative ♦ J — which of course might turn out to be the killing defence, especially when declarer has the ♣ K.

however, the rationale of leading ♣ Q is that you are prepared to concede a trick in the suit in order to make four, if partner has another club, and can gain the lead.

Whenever you are leading from a suit which has an interior sequence such as this, or even A J 10 8 x, it is generally correct to lead the top of that sequence, rather than the fourth best, and certainly not the ace.