BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

West ♠ 8 ♥ A975 ♦ KQ965 ♣ 643 North opens 1Nt (weak) and South bids 4 ♥ . What would you lead from the above hand? We all know how important the opening lead is. Very often your successful choice will mean the difference between success and failure, so it pays to have guidelines for picking the right card.

First, you study the bidding for any clues and, in this case, you don’t get many. North has a balanced 12 to 14pts and South must have at least six hearts with no more than 12pts. He may have as few as eight or nine HCPs, if he is distributional.

a second guideline is that you only lead a singleton when you want a ruff or when you have no better option. Here your trumps are good enough to expect two tricks without taking a ruff, so your better option is to try to force declarer. That means leading a diamond, and your choice should be the king.

When defending against a No Trump contract, the lead of the king would promise KQJ or a tenace of KQ10, but this does not apply against a suit contract, where you cannot risk conceding a cheap trick. You will still get your opportunity to take a spade ruff later without opening the suit up for the opponents.