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 Trump Leads (Part II) by Ben Norton

Trump Leads (Part II)

Continuing with the theme of last week’s quiz, this time we’ll be looking at when not to lead trumps and the tell-tale signs from the auction and your hand.

As South on these five questions would you lead a trump or not?


Question 1

  Your Hand
 5 2
 J 6 3
 K Q 8 2
 J 8 4 3
 
Q: 1 - What will you lead against 4?

SouthWestNorthEast
Pass1Pass1
Pass3Pass3
Pass4PassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: K. This is certainly not a time to lead trumps. Your opponents have a big source of tricks in dummy’s six-card Heart suit, so you have to try and establish some minor suit winners before declarer can get the Hearts going and draw trumps. The Diamond suit offers the best chance of tricks so the K lead stands out.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
 8 7 2
 K J 6 2
 A 9 7
 9 8 3
 
Q: 2 - What are your thoughts?

*4 is a cue-bid, showing interest in slam and a first or second-round control in Clubs

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass3Pass4*
Pass4PassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 2. East made a try for slam, so your opponents will have more than enough power for game, meaning that a passive trump lead won’t beat this. If left to his own devices declarer will have enough tricks for his contract by sheer weight of cards, so you have to lead aggressively in order to set up and cash four quick tricks for the defense. If partner has the Q or A then the Heart suit will provide two or even three tricks, so your best chance lies with the 2 lead.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 7
 9 6 4 2
 A Q J 6 3
 A Q J
 
Q: 3 - What’s your choice?

SouthWestNorthEast
-1Pass2
Pass2Pass3
Pass4PassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: 2. Here a trump lead is best, because you know that things are splitting badly for declarer. The Spades are likely 5-1 and the trumps 4-1 or 4-0, so declarer won’t be able to score enough tricks in Spades and Hearts for his game, and he can hardly turn to the minor suits for help since you have them well and truly sewn up.

Once he finds out about the bad breaks, declarer’s only chance will be to try and score lots of tricks by ruffing, so you should cut down his ruffing potential with a trump lead. Note that leading your singleton Spade would only help declarer. Partner can hardly have the A or even a minor suit King when you have a fourteen-count, so you won’t get a ruff, and you may tip declarer off as to the unfavourable distribution such that he starts playing on a cross-ruff straight away, before you get the chance to draw any trumps.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 A 8 5 4
 7 6
 Q 9 7 3
 K 5 3
 
Q: 4 - What will you lead against 4?

SouthWestNorthEast
--Pass1
Pass1NTPass4
PassPassPass


 Your choice:
A: 3. You mustn’t lead a trump against this kind of auction, when there’s likely to be very few trumps on the dummy. If you do then you’ll only be picking up partner’s stray trump honors and doing declarer's work for him. Indeed a trump lead could be disastrous if there’s a shortage of entries to dummy or if there aren’t any trumps on the table at all.

Instead you should lead a minor suit, since a Spade away from the Ace rates to give away a trick far too often. Neither a Club nor a Diamond is particularly attractive either, but a Diamond is the lesser of the four evils and may even serve to set up tricks in the suit if partner has the Ace or King.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 7 3
 A 6 5 3 2
 A 7 6 2
 K 3
 
Q: 5 - What about this 4 contract?

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2Pass3
Pass4PassPass
Pass


 Your choice:
A: A. With such unprecedented trump length (partner rates to have a void), this hand will be awkward for declarer, but not as tricky as you think, since your trump intermediates are so poor he will likely have five trump tricks. With the K poorly placed under dummy’s suit you can tell that if declarer is able to draw all your trumps he will likely make his contract with the aid of a Club finesse. So because your trumps are so bad your only chance is to promote them by forcing declarer to ruff and lose trump control.

The only suit you can do this in is Diamonds, as you’ll need to be able to force declarer with a winner when you get in with the A. It could be right to lead a small Diamond if declarer has a King-Jack guess at trick one, but in many other positions it will probably give away a trick, mainly because partner won’t believe you’ve underled a side-suit Ace against a suit contract.

It’s best to clear up the position by kicking off with the Ace. This has another advantage in that you retain the lead for trick two, so if partner discourages with a low card you can switch to Spades in the hope of taking ruffs there, knowing in that case that your Diamonds aren’t good enough to start tapping declarer’s trumps.

The typical conditions in which a trump lead probably isn’t best are:

- When you need to set up your tricks (e.g. when they have a long side-suit)
- When the opponents have more than enough power for their contract (e.g. after a failed game/slam try)
- BUT if there’s a bad split for declarer in two suits then a trump lead may be fine so as to not give anything away and reduce the opponents’ ruffing potential
- When one opponent is short of trumps (then a trump lead will only help declarer)
- When you have unprecedented trump length (usually five cards), then it’s probably right to force declarer to ruff so as to make him lose trump control which will promote your trumps, therefore strive to lead your best and longest side suit in this scenario
- BUT if you have five trumps headed by a long sequence (e.g. J 10 9 8 x), then a trump lead is most likely best to stop declarer taking ruffs, since you wouldn’t gain anything by promoting your own trumps as they would naturally take tricks anyway

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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