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 Opening Lead for Intermediates 14 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
 J 6 5 4 2
 A 6 5
 8 6 4
 9 4
 
Q: 1 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
---1NT
Pass2Pass2
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass

The opponents are declaring in 3NT after a Simple Stayman auction. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 6.

The auction is a helpful tool on this auction. The Stayman auction has revealed East with four Hearts and West with four Spades. This therefore eliminates those two suits from our choice of opening leads. So we are down to Diamonds or Clubs.

A small but helpful clue is that if partner had a decent five-card (or longer) Club suit, he might've doubled the 2 Stayman bid as lead directional. This subtlety should convince us that our best chance lies within the Diamonds, hoping that is partner's suit.

With three small cards, the correct card to lead is the middle one.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
 6 5 2
 Q 7 6
 J 9 5 4
 9 7 6
 
Q: 2 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
--12
Pass4PassPass
Pass

You are on lead against 4 on the above auction. What will you choose?

 Your choice:
A: 5.

Partner opened the bidding with 1 so we must have a pretty strong reason if we were not to lead partner's suit! Here, we have no such reason so we should stick with it.

With three small cards, even if it's in partner's suit, we should still lead the second card. On the second round of Spades, we should continue to follow suit with the 6 (higher card) to prevent any confusion, since if we follow suit with the 2 on the second round instead, partner may think we have a doubleton.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 K 7 2
 6 5 4
 10 9 8 5 2
 4 2
 
Q: 3 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
--12
Pass3Pass3NT
PassPassPass

It is you to lead against 3NT on the given auction above. What's your choice?

 Your choice:
A: 2.

We are clearly leading partner's suit as anything else would be a huge risk to take. We don't care if East has a stopper, our goal is to establish partner's Spades.

The question is, do we lead the K or the 2?

You may think partner might be more delighted to see the King rather than the 2, but the fact is, the King from Kxx may ruin the suit entirely. Just because we are leading partner's suit doesn't make our rules different, so with Kxx, we lead our lowest card. If we had Kx doubleton, THEN we would lead the K.

For example, if the Spade suit was distributed like such:

                    8 5

K 7 2                          A J 10 6 3

                     Q 9 4

The lead of the 2 will pick up declarer's Q in no time, but the lead of the K will give declarer a Spade trick.



Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 K 3
 7 5 4
 Q 10 6 5
 Q 5 4 3
 
Q: 4 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
--11
22Pass4
PassPassPass

A quiet competitive auction sees the opponents win with their 4 contract. What will you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 7.

When we have supported partner's suit, it is now OK to lead the top card from three small cards. Based on the 7, partner will know that we do not have an honor in this suit.

If you are wondering whether partner might mistake us for a doubleton Heart due to the 7 lead (as we'll be following suit with a lower Heart on the next round), partner will not make that mistake. He heard us support his Hearts in the bidding, so we are KNOWN to have at least three Hearts, eliminating any thoughts about us having a doubleton!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 6 2
 A 8 4
 8 7 4 2
 10 9 8 5
 
Q: 5 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
-111
Pass2Pass4
PassPassPass

You are on lead against 4. What's your choice?

 Your choice:
A: 10.

Obviously our other choice is a Heart - specifically, the Ace of Hearts (we don't underlead Aces against suit contracts). However, leading the unsupported Ace can be dangerous. Yes, Hearts is partner's suit and he surely rates to hold the K, and without a reasonable alternative lead option, the A is what we would go for.

On this hand however, we have another option - the 10. Even the A lead here can cost if declarer has the K and partner has QJxxx. Partner has overcalled 1 not vulnerable at the 1-level, so that doesn't mean he always has to have the K.


Your result so far:
Open Question

Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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