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At the table, West led the ace of hearts
and another heart, planning to cut down
ruffs in dummy. After all, he and partner
had the other suits locked up. Not quite.
I was partnered by Mike Lawrence, who
won the second trump in hand and led the
jack of diamonds. Shortly thereafter, he
claimed 10 tricks for +790.

I have two tips today. Tip one: When
you balance with a takeout double, have
support for the missing major; with the
West hand, balance with a 2 bid.

Tip two: I don't like to double-dummy
opening leads, but in general the lead
from a king-queen is a strong one --
don't overthink; here the simple lead
would have defeated the contract. Yes,
a singleton lead is also a good one, but
in this case, West wasn't likely to get
East on lead later in the hand, since
East had indicated spades (by passing
the double of 1) and little else. If East
held the ace of spades, the singleton
lead could wait until after West got in
with the trump ace.