Pick the right suit to play on first

How often have you read that when the dummy is tabled, you should pause and take stock? Countless times, I'm sure — but does your partner always heed the advice?

Now, no doubt, he will take time to consider his line of play in today's threeno-trump contract. West leads a low spade to dummy's singleton ace.

As South is in no-trump, he starts by counting his top tricks. Here he has four: two spades, one heart and one club. That means he requires five more winners. The diamond suit will provide four of them, and the fifth has to come from the clubs.

Which minor should he lead at trick two? To answer that question, he should consider how he might go down. The only risk is that East gains the lead early and pushes a spade through declarer's king-jack. If West holds the queen with length plus another entry, South might lose five tricks before winning nine.

He must strain to keep East off the lead. He should lead the club queen at trick two. If East covers with the king, South wins with his ace and shifts to diamonds. His nine tricks will be ready to run.

Here, West wins with the club king, but he cannot hurt declarer. Whatever West returns, declarer wins the trick and attacks diamonds.

If partner didn't handle this contract correctly, don't criticize him too harshly. When the deal was played in an expert tournament in 1954, every declarer but one led a diamond at trick two, suffering defeat. The sole successful South led the heart nine at trick two, which worked as East held a heart honor!