All News

For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players…and others who do not come up with the right leads very often!

The recommended lead is…?

20 years ago, Andy Braithwaite wrote an article for NZ Bridge Magazine on “What Went Wrong” highlighting the difficulty of finding the right opening lead. He commented that if you “keep making the recommended leads, you will win more often than not.”

He took two boards from a Teams match involving inexperienced players to illustrate that there is often a choice of recommended leads though the case for one is much stronger. What would be your choice here:

 

and here:

 

Similar starts to the auctions though different final contracts.

The first board produced no swing in the match though different suits were led.

 

 

At one table, West decided to lead 4^th highest of their longest and strongest, 2. J won in dummy. Declarer knocked out A and eventually scored 4 heart tricks 3 spade and 3 club tricks and A, 11 in total…+ 660. After that initial lead, 9 tricks were certain. 

At the other table, West chose to make another recommended lead, the unbid suit, clubs. No great joy for the defence after K took the first trick. The defence could have held declarer to 10 tricks though it seemed South came to 11 once more.

Way into the post mortem, one player saw that an initial J lead would have defeated the contract. No matter how declarer plays at trick 1, the defence will score 3 diamond tricks and A. Now, to come to 9 tricks, South will need to take a successful club finesse but as you can see, that fails as does the contract. 

Andy commented: “4^th highest leads are fine but are “less fine” when the suit is the first bid suit by the declarer (unless the defender has a really strong suit, which West’s suit is not). The defender, as here, is likely to give the declarer a cheap finesse.

Similarly, leading the unbid suit is also a good lead and this West was unluckier than his opponent. However, in doing so, it is often better if you hold an honour in that suit. Otherwise, you need your partner to have a really good holding in the suit.

Meanwhile, the lead of dummy’s second bid suit is often a good lead too. The rationale is that the partner (here South) can only bid no-trumps with the knowledge that their partner has a hold in that suit. Yet, because it is the second suit bid by dummy, it is often the shorter and thus potentially the weaker of the two suits dummy holds.

Here, West has potentially good supporting cards in this suit, JT2. East may have 4 diamonds and the combined strength of the defensive cards may outweigh that of declarer and dummy…here producing three diamond tricks for the defence.”

Thus, three possible recommended suit leads for West but both spades and clubs were flawed and only diamonds really met the criteria needed with an honour, indeed two, in the suit. Opportunity lost for both teams.

What then the second deal? Here, again, three suits had been bid and at one table, West chose the unbid suit, leading A:

 

West realised then that South may want to ruff clubs in dummy and switched to a trump…but it was too late. East could not continue trumps and South could ruff 2 losing clubs in dummy and discard the third on K, losing just A, A and a diamond.

After the same bidding at the other table, West led a trump. Andy commented:

“North’s bidding suggested 5 hearts, at least 4 diamonds and probably 3 spades. There was not much room for many clubs. How then to stop declarer ruffing losing clubs in dummy? Lead a trump at trick 1!”

East won A and switched to a low club won by West’s jack and was followed by a second trump. Now, only one club could be ruffed in dummy and declarer had an inescapable second club loser…down 1." As long as South does not touch diamonds until the 5th round of hearts is established in dummy,and then ignores the finesse, declarer can still make 10 tricks establishing the 5th round of hearts for a second club discard. 

“It may not be correct to lead a trump very often but it certainly is when dummy is known to be very short in one side suit and you can stop ruffs in dummy. A similar occasion is this sequence:

West              East

1                   1

2                   Pass

as East may be very short in hearts to prefer opener’s second suit.”

As Andy says, “Listen to the bidding and your partner will be saying much more regularly: “Great lead, partner.”

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items