Opening Lead for Intermediates 15 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
♠ 3
♥ A K 10 5 4
♦ A J 9 8 5
♣ 7 4

Q: 1 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♣
1♥	1♠	Pass	1NT
2♦	2NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

A quiet competitive auction ends with East declaring in 2NT. What do you lead?

A: ♦8.

This hand is not easy to lead from. Generally, we would lead a Heart here from this hand as that is our strongest suit. Before we do that on instinct, let's take a look at the auction first.

West has shown Spades and East's 1NT rebid shows a minimum balanced hand with a Heart stopper. Over our 2♦ rebid, West bids 2NT showing (or maybe not?) a Diamond stopper. Does this slightly favor a Diamond lead over a Heart as they may not have a Diamond stopper?

Let's look deeper. I think the real clue is that the opponents have stopped in 2NT. This means that they do not have the point-count for a game, so partner is marked with some values yet he passed over West's 1♠. This would tend to deny three-card Heart support as partner may have raised with that, so with all that said and done, a Diamond leads seems to be favored here.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 5 3 2
♥ A K 4
♦ A 8 7
♣ Q 9 5 4

Q: 2 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
Pass	3♣	Pass	3♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

Here, we are defending against a partscore of 3♠ where North's jump to 3♣ was an artificial and a conventional raise, showing four-card support and 6 to 9 points. What do you lead?

A: ♥A.

With no clear lead, we have a relatively safe ♥A lead to begin with. At least we can take a look at dummy before deciding what to continue with at trick 2.

Had our Hearts been ♥Axx, a trump lead then would be best. Although a Club is not unreasonable, the auction does not suggest any hand has a long suit to use for discards, therefore, it would be safest to defend passively with a trump lead.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ J 9
♥ A 5
♦ K J 7 5 3
♣ 7 4 3 2

Q: 3 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
Pass	1NT	Pass	2♥
Pass	4♥	Pass	Pass
Pass

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

A: ♦5.

This is not the right time for a trump lead. Yes, dummy figures to be short in Spades but dummy will have enough trump support to handle against a Heart lead so we should look elsewhere.

Naturally, a minor suit lead is best as declarer has shown both majors. In fact, it is probably necessary to lead a minor as to safeguard against the possibility of East using his Spades for discards in dummy. As our Diamonds are stronger than our Clubs, that's what we shall go for.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 10 6 5 3
♥ Q 7 4
♦ K 7 5 3
♣ J 3

Q: 4 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
Pass	2♣	Pass	2♠
Pass	3♣	Pass	3NT
Pass	Pass	Pass

You are on lead against 3NT where East has shown a distributional hand with Hearts and Spades. What will you choose?

A: ♦3.

The opponents seem to be strong in three suits, so it can't be wrong to lead the fourth and unbid suit, Diamonds! With the opponents having strength in the other three suits, it makes logical sense that their weakest suit must be in Diamonds!

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ Q 10 7 4
♥ K 9 7 6 4
♦ A Q 4
♣ 5

Q: 5 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♣
1♥	Double	Pass	1NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

West's Double is negative, showing exactly four Spades. The final contract is 3NT, and you have to find a lead.

A: ♥6.

Although partner could not muster up a bid, we should still lead our longest and strongest suit, Hearts. Yes, East did rebid 1NT showing a Heart stopper, but if we are to defeat this contract, our best chance lies within the Heart suit. There's nothing stopping our partner from holding ♥Qx which might be all we need to defeat this 3NT contract.

Otherwise, we know West has Spades, and establishing tricks in the minor suits seems like a impossible job. Therefore, we must rely on our Hearts.

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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