Opening Leads against Suit Contracts 7 by Paul Bowyer

We continue with a series on opening leads against suit contracts.

Opening Leads against suit contracts is tricky, and there are many pitfalls.

Basically, there are four strategies:

1. Short suit leads;
2. Sequence leads;
3. Passive leads;
4. Attacking leads.

This series contains a mixture of deals.

You are always South, on lead to East's suit contract.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ 9 6 4
♥ 2
♦ Q 9 8 6 3
♣ J 10 8 3

Q: 1 - You are South, on lead to 4♠ after the auction below.

What is your choice of lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
P	3♠	P	4♠
P	p	P

A: Lead the ♥2.

Lead your singleton hoping for a Heart ruff (or even two). You have a horrible hand, so it is not too unreasonable to hope that North has the ♥A and an entry in another suit.

This way it is possible that you might take the first four tricks against 4♠.

Remember that the worse your hand, the better a short-suit lead becomes.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 9 8
♥ 5 4 2
♦ Q 9 8 6
♣ Q 7 5 2

Q: 2 - You are South, on lead to 4♥ after the auction below.

What is your choice of lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
P	3♥	P	4♥
P	p	P

A: Lead the ♠9.

The opponents have sailed into game and you have little in your collection of rubbish to suggest that they won’t make it.

In these cases, the only real chance seems to be to play for a ruff. Try a short-suit lead of a Spade and hope that you may get a third-round ruff.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 9 8
♥ 5 4 2
♦ K Q J 9
♣ Q 10 8 7

Q: 3 - You are South, on lead to 4♥ after the auction below.

What is your choice of lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
P	3♥	P	4♥
P	p	P

A: Lead the ♦K.

Now (by contrast with Q2) you have too good a hand to think that partner has enough to be able to give you a third-round Spade ruff.

Also, you have a very attractive sequence lead in Diamonds. The ♦K may well set some tricks up immediately and is safe.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 9 8
♥ J 8 7
♦ K 9 7 6 2
♣ Q J 10

Q: 4 - You are South, on lead to 4♥ after the auction below.

What is your choice of lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
P	1♠	P	2♥
P	3♥	P	4♥
P	P	P

A: Lead the ♣Q.

When you are lucky enough to have been dealt a sequence that is what you should lead.

Leading the doubleton Spade would be a poor choice – firstly it is certainly not good tactics to lead dummy’s suit and, secondly, it isn’t clear that you want (or need) a ruff.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ Q J 10
♥ K 10 6 2
♦ J 9 7 6 2
♣ J

Q: 5 - You are South, on lead to 2♠ after the auction below.

What is your choice of lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
P	2♣	P	2♠
P	P	P

A: Lead the ♠Q.

Yes, a trump. Why? Well, it’s safe in that it can’t open up a frozen suit and also you have nothing better to do.

A singleton Club, you say? But you don’t want to ruff a Club with a certain trump trick. Anyway, leading dummy’s suit is rarely a good strategy.

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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