Menu Vu-Bridge | Play like a Champion!

 Opening Lead for Intermediates 1 by Andy Hung

Opening Leads. They're the card that sets the tempo of all bridge hands, and it is the first strike that the defense gets. Sometimes declarer's contract is rock solid and the lead doesn't matter, or sometimes the contract is too high and declarer is destined to fail.

What is important is that we must make every effort to choose the best opening lead that will give us the best chance to defeat the contract. Are you ready?

Question 1

  Your Hand
♠ 8 7 4
♥ Q 9 5
♦ Q 8 7 5
♣ K 7 2 		 
Q: 1 - You are South.
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♠
pass2♠pass3♠
pass4♠passpass
pass
Your opponents have made their way (albeit slowly) to 4♠. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: ♠4.
The bidding indicates that your opponents have crawled their way into game - meaning that they probably don't have much to spare in terms of extra values. Don't give anything away by making an attacking lead. Instead, go passive and lead a trump, and hope for the tricks to come to you!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
♠ J 10 6
♥ Q 8 5
♦ 8 6 4
♣ K J 9 5 		 
Q: 2 - You are North.
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♦
pass1 No-trumppasspass
pass

This time, your opponents have a quiet auction to 1NT. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: ♠J.

Usually it is best to stick with the "fourth best from longest and strongest" rule, but there is something peculiar on this hand that suggests otherwise. What do we know about declarer's hand?

Declarer had responded 1NT, which shows 6-9 points, denies a four-card major, and quite likely no four-card Diamond support. If that's the case, what suit must declarer have? Clubs!

Knowing that declarer must have at least a four-card Club suit, we should look to lead some other suit. Here, Spades offer us a reasonable alternative. Let's hope we hit partner's suit!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
♠ 8 7 4
♥ Q J 8 6 4
♦ K 2
♣ Q J 10 		 
Q: 3 - You are South.
SouthWestNorthEast
---1 No-trump
pass3 No-trumpspasspass
pass
What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: ♥6.

Your longest and strongest suit here is Hearts, so that's the suit that you hope to establish.

Against No-trumps, leading an honor generally promises a three-card run (or a semi-broken three-card run), and here, we don't have that. Therefore, we should lead the ♥6.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
♠ 7 6 4
♥ 8 2
♦ 10 9 5
♣ 9 8 5 3 2 		 
Q: 4 - You are South.
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♠
pass3♠pass4♠
passpasspass
We have a fine collection of cards here! Sometimes we just have to handle what life throws at us! What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: ♥8.

Your best hope here is to lead your shortest suit.

Holding such a weak hand here, your best chance is to aim for a Heart ruff. As the opponents didn't search for a slam, we can definitely rely on partner to have some values - and hopefully, they're in Hearts!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
♠ A Q 10 8
♥ J 7
♦ 6 4 3
♣ Q J 9 8 		 
Q: 5 - You are South.
SouthWestNorthEast
---1♠
pass1 No-trumppass2♦
passpasspass
What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: ♦3. A lead of a trump here is best.

It is quite attractive to lead the ♣Q, and in fact if East had rebid 2♠ instead of 2♦, that's what we would have led.

However, East here had rebid 2♦. This isn't the important clue - it is actually West's PASS of 2♦. This pass indicates that responder prefers Diamonds over Spades, and is therefore likely to hold short Spades.

We can already predict what declarer's plan is going to be - he will be aiming to ruff a couple of Spades in dummy. To reduce those ruffs, we should preempt in the play by leading a trump!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

Rate yourself:

0 - 40% We applaud your effort.
Review the subject and try again. You'll be surprised how much better you'll do.
We're here for you!!
41 - 50% Buy your mentor a cuppa and ask for clarification on the ones you got wrong.
No mentor? Make finding one a priority!
51 - 60% Nice improvement! One more review and you'll have this down solid!
61 - 80% What a good job! All that's left is some fine tuning
Over 80% Wow! It's time for you to become a mentor. Find someone who needs help and share your knowledge!
Return To Home

© 2014 - 2019 Vu-Bridge. All Rights Reserved.