One of the harder decisions to make in playing or defending a hand is making the opening lead. \u00a0The only information you have to make this decision is the auction and the 13 cards in your hand. \u00a0Many times after a hand is over I’ve said to my partner “I made the killing lead. \u00a0After that\u00a0the defense was dead.” \u00a0This lesson has two main themes. \u00a0The first is knowing what the standard lead from a specific suit holding is. \u00a0The second is deciding which suit to lead. \u00a0Finally, we’ll look at alternative lead systems.<\/p>\n
Sequence Leads<\/strong>: \u00a0These leads are usually safe. \u00a0With touching honors we lead the _____ ___________. \u00a0(Think “Leadership comes from the top”.) \u00a0Example: \u00a0With KQJx we lead the _________. \u00a0This does two things for you:<\/p>\n Interior Sequence Leads<\/strong>: \u00a0These leads are moderately risky. \u00a0An example is KJ10. \u00a0The J is the top of the “___________ ___________” and is the standard lead from this holding. \u00a0This lead really pays off when your partner has the A and declarer the Q. \u00a0If declarer has the A and the Q between his two hands, oh well.<\/p>\n Leads from length to an honor<\/strong>: These leads can be risky. \u00a0Typically we lead _______\u00a0from an honor, usually 4th best from 4 or more, or 3rd best from 3.<\/p>\n Leads from length with no honor<\/strong>: This is a matter of partnership agreement and style. \u00a0People who value ________\u00a0information like to agree on leading low from 3, 4th best from 4 or more no matter what’s at the top of the suit. \u00a0People who value ___________\u00a0information like to agree on leading “top of nothing” or “second highest from nothing”.<\/p>\n Short suit leads<\/strong>: \u00a0Lead your _______\u00a0card from a doubleton. \u00a0Lead your lowest from a singleton.<\/p>\n The primary factors that go into deciding which suit to lead are:<\/p>\n Trump leads are often good when:<\/p>\n Don’t lead trumps on opening lead if:<\/p>\n Even if you and your partner stick with standard leads, you should be familiar with some common alternatives because your opponents may be using a different lead system when you are the declarer. \u00a0Don’t assume you know what the opponents are doing; look at their convention card or ask the opening leader’s partner. \u00a0A good basic question is “Please tell me about your leads, carding, and discards.”<\/p>\n Also known as “Jack Denies, 9 or 10 Implies”, or “Journalist leads”. \u00a0A non-trivial number of partnerships in our club do this. \u00a0Using this system, the lead of the Jack denies a higher honor, while the lead of a 9 or 10 implies either 0 or 2 higher honors. \u00a0For example, with either Q 10 9 x or 9 x x x the lead is the 9. \u00a0If between your hand, the dummy, and RHO’s play to trick 1 you may be able to tell which it is.<\/p>\n A fair number of partnerships in our club lead 3rd and 5th vs length as opposed to 4th best. \u00a0If the lead is the 2 then you know opening leader has 3 or 5 in the suit, for example. \u00a0If they are doing this then you can’t use the Rule of Eleven; it won’t work.<\/p>\n A small number of partnerships use attitude leads, typically against your NT contract. \u00a0The lead of a low spot card implies an honor, while the lead of a high spot card is usually top or 2nd highest from nothing. \u00a0This can help you place missing honors in the suit.<\/p>\n You sometimes\u00a0may run into this one in a tournament. \u00a0Using this system, the lead of an honor implies the honor\u00a0above<\/em>\u00a0it. For example, from KQxx the Rusinow lead is the Q.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Opening Leads One of the harder decisions to make in playing or defending a hand is making the opening lead. \u00a0The only information you have to make this decision is the auction and the 13 cards in your hand. \u00a0Many…\n
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Standard Leads When Your Partner Bids<\/h2>\n
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Figuring Out Which Suit To Lead<\/h2>\n
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Leading Trumps<\/h3>\n
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Alternative Lead Systems<\/h2>\n
“Coded 9s and 10s”<\/h2>\n
“Third and Fifth”<\/h3>\n
“Attitude Leads”<\/h3>\n
“Rusinow”<\/h3>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":20,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions\/198"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}