Menu Vu-Bridge | Play like a Champion!

 Opening Lead for Intermediates 30 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.

In this series, we will analyze the opponent's auction to see whether we want to lead aggressively or passively. Are you ready?

Question 1

  Your Hand
 10 9 8
 K J 7 3
 7 3 2
 J 4 2
 
Q: 1 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2Pass3
Pass4PassPass
Pass

You are on lead against 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 3.

The opponents have announced a secondary fit in Diamonds. If we lead passively with a trump, declarer can just draw trumps and play on the winning Diamonds and discard any losers that he has.

Once there is a threatening side suit that can be used for discards, we should look to an aggressive lead. Here, a Heart is best as we just need partner to have either the A or Q.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

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

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2Pass3
Pass4PassPass
Pass

The opponents have a slow limited auction to 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 3.

This one is a bit tough. We can see from the auction that the opponents crawled their way into game, so we know that neither of them have much power in reserve. Stick with passive defense in that case - you don't want to take any risks.

A Spade lead may work, but it would be disastrous if dummy has J x x and declarer has A x x.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

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

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2NTPass4
Pass4NTPass5
Pass6PassPass
Pass

The auction needs some explanation:

2NT = Artificial, showing a game forcing hand with four-card Spade support.
4 = Natural five-card Club suit, with two of the top three honors.
4NT = Asking for Aces
5 = Two Aces

What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 6.

Definitely lead aggressive on this auction. Declarer has announced a secondary Club suit, and this can be used to discard dummy's losers. Therefore, we should lead a red suit - since our Diamonds are a tad stronger, we should lead that instead of a Heart.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

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

SouthWestNorthEast
-1Pass1
Pass1Pass1NT
Pass2NTPass3NT
PassPassPass

You are on lead against 3NT. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 2.

None of our choices seem particularly attractive. A Club, while it may be the unbid suit, is not an attractive lead when we hold A97.

Best lead here is most likely a Heart. Yes, it is a suit bid by East, but we have some protection in the suit as we have the 10 and 8. If partner has the A or the Q, then we will have made a good start to the defense.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

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

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2Pass4
PassPassPass

You are on lead against 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: K.

No, you are not going crazy, this is the same hand as Question 2! There is a slight difference, and that can be seen from the auction. Here, East has just blasted to game rather than make a game invitational bid. This means that East has a lot of power in reserve, so in that case, we shouldn't take it easy with a passive trump lead. While it may still work, we are better off making an attacking lead of the K.

It's certainly quite interesting to see that we may lead different cards with the same hand, depending on what the auction has told us.

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!