One hundred honors

Everybody please bow your heads in bemusement -- that last post, on the subject of which suit to lead, was the 100th post on this blog!

May there be 100 more.

On this happy day, I'd like especially to thank my dedicated co-bloggers, Matos (the site's venerable founder and idea man), Jeff, and Lisa. Without you, we'd only be up to, what, 97?

Defense basics: Which suit to lead

Many a contract stands or falls based on this one decision. But you're shooting blind -- you haven't seen the dummy yet. Making inferences from the bidding and from your hand is a fine art, but here are some basic guidelines, in rough order of preference.

Against no-trump contracts:

Lead your partner's suit. A good suit is always more powerful when led to, rather than led from.

Lead your own longest suit, unless it's one the opponents have bid.

If you have to lead a suit that opponents have bid, lead dummy's, not declarer's, suit.

DON'T lead a short suit that partner hasn't bid.

Against trump contracts:

Lead partner's suit.

Lead a singleton if you have a chance of developing a trump winner. There's little point in leading a singleton if you have, say, KQ of trump, since you have an inevitable trump winner there anyway.

Lead an unbid suit, especially one in which you have an honor sequence.

Lead dummy's suit.

Lead trump if it might prevent dummy from ruffing; e.g. if declarer has shown a long side suit.

If you have significant trump length, lead your longest other suit.

DON'T lead a suit headed by a lone honor or by a tenace.

DON'T lead declarer's side suit.

Six spades

Paul	Bryan	Nils	Adam
1	Pass	2	Pass
3	Pass	4	Pass
6	Pass	Pass	Pass

Vulnerable: both
Lead:  A

Paul

 10 9 7

 K Q 9 4

 A K J 6 5 4

 

Adam

 4 2

 J 7 3 2

 9

 A 9 7 6 5 3

Bryan

 Q 5 3

 A 10 6 5

 Q 10 8 7

 J 4

Nils

 A K J 8 6

 8

 3 2

 K Q 10 8 2

The importance of signaling

This is a hand from last night, as best I remember it -- let me know if I'm misremembering any important details.

North	East	South	West
	Pass	1	Pass
1	Pass	2NT	Pass
3NT	Pass	Pass	Pass

Lead:  4

North

 x x x

 K Q J 10 x

 K

 J 9 x x

West

 A x x

 x x x

 A 7

 Q 10 x x x

East

 Q x x x

 x x x x

 x x x x

 x

South

 K x x

 A

 Q J x x x x

 A K x

Sitting East, you might feel you don't have much of a role to play in the defense of the hand -- try to duck a spade finesse maybe, and return partner's suit.

In fact, the card you play on the first trick can have a dramatic impact. Declarer has an entry problem: if the defense times its cards right, he can never get to all those juicy hearts. On the second trick, he tries to get to dummy by leading his low club. West would naturally play second-hand low on this trick -- which guarantees 9 tricks for the declarer -- but if West realizes that South doesn't have any more hearts, West can go up with the queen to block the entry.

The trick is for East to signal high-low on the first heart trick, to indicate an even number of hearts. West knows that if South had three or more hearts, he probably would have supported North's bid; so he can deduce that the even number of hearts that East has = 4, leaving South with a singleton ace and no way to reach dummy's winners.

6NT

I'm just jotting this deal down here for my own record. I played out the diamonds first (wasting my beer card) to get a sense of the hands, then located the missing honors successfully (two kings West, queen East).

North	East	South	West
	Pass	1NT	Pass
2	Pass	3NT	Pass
4NT	Pass	5	Pass
6NT	Pass	Pass	Pass

Lead:  7

North

 Q J x

 A J x

 Q x x x

 K J x

South

 A 10 x

 Q x

 A K J 7

 A x x x