Lead Problem

Here is your hand:
♠542
♥KJT8
♦AQ7
♣532

The contract is 1NT. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) opened the bidding 1NT and everyone passed. You are on lead. What do you lead?

Show Answer

J♥

You tend to want to lead your longest suit in a NT contract. ♥ is your longest suit.

When leading, you need to play TOP of an INTERNAL SEQUENCE.

Lead Problem

Here is your hand:

♠KQ87
♥9875
♦862
♣84

You are on lead against 2♥. Your Partner opened the bidding 1NT (15 to 17) and the Opponents settled in 2♥. You decide to lead a ♠. What card in the ♠ suit do you lead?

Show Answer

The K♠

Do NOT lead your fourth best ♠. In a trump contract you can lead the top of TWO touching honours. In a NT contract you need to lead top of THREE touching honours.

If you lead a low ♠ Declarer got to win their J♠ and still had their A♠. You do not get a ♠ trick. If you lead the K♠ you forced out Declarer's A♠ and will score a trick with your Q♠.

Lead

Here is your suit: ♣K987

You are on lead and decide to lead this suit. What card do you lead? Doesn't matter if the contract is NT or a trump contract. You lead the same card. Which card?

Show Answer

Lead the 7.

Some people think you should lead the 9. Top of a sequence.

It is a sequence but it is an INTERNAL sequence. There is a higher card above the sequence. With an internal sequence you only lead the top card if it is an honour. The Ten is considered an honour but the 9 is not.

So from K987 lead your fourth best.

From KT98 you lead the Ten.

Another Lead Problem

Here is your hand:
♠3
♥J8632
♦KJ3
♣9753

The contract is 3♠. Partner opened the bidding 1♦ so you decide to lead a ♦. What card do you lead?

Show Answer

You SHOULD play low from an honour. The 3♦.

Is it really that big a deal if you don't?

If you lead the K♦ (which most players did) this sets up Declarer's Q♦.

The ♦ holding was this:

	Dummy ♦762
You! ♦KJ3		Partner ♦AT54
	Declarer ♦Q98

If you started with the K♦ and then lead a low ♦ to Partner's A♦ then Declarer's Q♦ will be a winner.

If you started with the 3♦ Partner will win their A♦ and then your KJ♦ is sitting over Declarer's Q9♦.

Lead Problem

Here is your hand:
♠KQ74
♥AT5
♦K842
♣43

The contract is 4♥.

RHO opened the bidding 2♥ and LHO bid 4♥. Partner did not bid anything.

What card do you lead?

Show Answer

Probably the best lead is the K♠. TOP of two touching honours. This lead will work out. The lead at the table was the 4♠. Fourth highest from their longest and strongest. This fourth best lead works when you only have one honour or non-touching honours. In NT you need a three card honour sequence to lead from. But a SUIT contract is different. You lead top of TWO touching honours.

Is it really that big a deal if you don't?

If you lead the 4♠ (which most players did) watch what happened.

The ♠ holding was this:

	Dummy ♠A98
You! ♠KQ74		Partner ♠T65
	Declarer ♠J32

If you started with the K♠ you will eventually get your Q♠.

If you started with the 4♠ Declarer played LOW and managed to win the trick with their J♠! They still had the A♠! They threw away their last ♠ on another suit and you scored NO ♠ tricks.

Lead Problem - Underleading Aces in a Trump Contract

So here is a lead problem. Here is your hand:

♠J63
♥J6
♦A8654
♣K97

The dealer is on your left and they Pass. Partner also Passes. Your RHO opens the bidding 1♥. You decide to Pass (good bid!). Now your LHO bids 1♠. Partner Passes. RHO bids 2♥. You Pass again. Now your LHO bids 4♥. Everyone Passes. It is your lead. What will you lead?

To recap the bidding your RHO bid ♥ twice and your LHO bid ♠ once. The opponents are in game. Lead?

Did you make your lead? This is actually not a difficult lead problem. Only a bad lead will allow this contract to make. Unfortunately EVERYONE in the novice game on Tuesday (and I mean EVERYONE) found the incredibly bad lead that was needed for this contract to make.

Curious as to what that bad lead was?

A low ♦. Against a trump contract everyone underlead their A♦ in order to allow this contract to make.

What is underleading your Ace? Just what exactly does that mean?

Underleading your Ace means to lead away from your Ace. Leading a card UNDERNEATH your Ace. If you lead a suit with an Ace in it and don't lead your Ace, you are underleading your Ace. This is something that you NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do in a suit (or trump) contract. By a suit contract I mean a contract in which the opponents are playing where there is trump.

Why not underlead your Ace in a trump contract? What's the big deal?

Because quite a bit of the time you no longer get to score a trick with your Ace because Declarer has a singleton in one hand and the King in the other. That means they get to win their King (because you have the only card that can beat the King but you didn't play it) and the next time the suit is lead they can trump.

Which is exactly what happened on this hand.

Here are the 4 hands:

	Dummy ♠KQT85 ♥875 ♦Q ♣QJ86
LHO (you) ♠J63 ♥J6 ♦A8654 ♣K97		RHO ♠A974 ♥Q2 ♦T93 ♣AT42
	Declarer ♠2 ♥AKT943 ♦KJ72 ♣53

With the lead being the 5♦, Declarer gets to win the Q♦ in Dummy. Now when they play their K♦ later on if you play your Ace they will trump it. You do not get to win a ♦ trick.

Big deal you say? Look at the hand and think of the auction. First of all your LHO started with a Pass. They do NOT have an opening hand. Your RHO opened 1♥ and rebid 2♥. They do not have anything extra. Then your LHO put them into game without even inviting. This means that the hand that LHO couldn't even open has now magically changed to a full opener.

Hmmmm. Suspicious. Sure this can happen. Perhaps now LHO is counting distribution and does have an opening hand. But it could also mean that the opponents don't have the values for a game. Further investigation of the hand reveals that the opponents are off 4 tricks right off the top. That means that you and your partner can take the first 4 tricks without Declarer being able to do anything. If the opponents are in 4♥ and you take the first 4 tricks they are down in their game contract.

But the underlead of the A♦ killed the defense. Now the defense can no longer take 4 tricks. The opponents will make the game.

What is the proper lead?

Leads are tough. You do not have a great lead on this hand. Leading an unbid suit is fine. But the point is that if you decide to lead a ♦ (one of the unbid suits) then lead the ACE♦!

In fact if you lead anything other than a low ♦ Declarer cannot make this contract.

If you lead a trump, Declarer will take out trump and probably play a ♠. Then you and Partner can take your A♠, your A♣ and K♣ and your A♦. Down 1.

If you lead the A♦, then no matter what you play next Declarer will go down. You can take your 4 tricks right away or win the A♦ and play trump. Declarer will take out trump and probably play a ♠. Then you and Partner can take your A♠, and your A♣ and K♣. Add that to your A♦ trick and get down 1.

If you lead a ♣ the proper lead is the 7♣. Low from an honour. Partner will win their A♣ and perhaps return a ♣. You can win this and win your A♦. Then you can play a ♠ for Partner to win. 4 tricks. Down 1.

So NEVER underlead (lead away from) an Ace in a suit contract.

In NT underleading Aces is fine. This is because in NT the Ace cannot get trumped later on. So underleading Aces is fine against a NT contract. Just not against a trump contract.