Leads: Trading a promotion for a finesse
Last month we investigated scenarios where declarer
promoted long suits to establish extra tricks. They say
imitation is the most sincere form of flattery – and so when
the opening leader makes a fourth-best lead, indeed the
defenders are attempting to promote their suit. Leading a
long suit helps your side get a step ahead in winning the
promotion race. However, since the powerful declarer holds
honors, we may finesse ourself or our partner when trying to
promote our suit. So it’s occasionally a game of give and
take, trading a promotion attempt for a possible finesse.
But it’s the best offer the opponents give us so we might as
well make the best of it. While fourth best leads are often
a sound practice, we should consider other
environmental factors such as the bidding, the final
contract, and hand attributes when choosing our most
profitable lead.
Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, a quick review of
sequence leads will provide us a sound foundation. Often,
sequences of 3 or more connected honor combinations can be
powerful forces to setup a longer suit to win the promotion
race. When we lead the top of our honor sequence, our partner
should immediately understand we have a long suit. It would
not make sense to lead an “unprotected” honor (not adjoining
other honors), so normally an honor lead shows a sequence of
3+ connected cards (ore nearly so).
Remember, this lesson focuses on Notrump contracts so our
lead criteria will change when opponents are playing a suit
contracts. For instance, it's usually unwise to "underlead"
a fourth best lead when holding an Ace. For suit contracts,
should we mistakenly lead a low card away from our Ace and
opponent holds a singleton King, we probably lose at least
one trick. Declarer will ruff our Ace and perhaps promote
their Queen or pitch a second card on a dummy winner in a
side suit. Fortunately, our honor sequence leads are the
same regardless of the final contract.
At any rate, this month we’re focusing on Notrump
contracts so leading away from an Ace is usually fine and
dandy. When the suit is replayed, we hope to win our Ace and
many more on our long suit. Aces make unbeatable entries in
Notrump contracts to help us promote our long suit – that’s
an important reason why we don’t lead our Aces in a Notrump
contract; otherwise we many not have an entry later when we
most need it. Okay, let’s begin looking at sequence leads.
K Q J 9 2 Lead the King
Q J 10 9 4 2 Lead the Queen
J 10 9 7 Lead the Jack
When you hold a honor sequence with the top 2 honors
connected:
K Q 10 4 Lead the King (adjoining top)
Q J 9 4 2 Lead the Queen (adjoining top)
10 9 7 4 2 Best suit? Optimists lead the 10
When you hold a honor sequence with the top 2 broken
honors (interior sequence):
K J 10 4 Lead the Jack (adjoining top)
Q 10 9 4 2 Lead the 10 (adjoining top)
10 8 7 4 2 Not worthy of promotion
A Q J 10 5 Lead Queen (adjoining top)
Without a connected honor sequence – perhaps only one, we
normally lead our fourth best card. In addition to helping
promote a long suit with strength, we advise partner of our
long suit. Even better, our fourth best lead signals partner
to use the “Rule of 11” to calculate how many outstanding
honors are held by the opponents. Here’s the formula: 11 –
lead card value = remaining cards above the lead card spot
value. Let’s try a few lead examples – you can remove a suit
from a deck of cards to prove this formula really works:
Lead Cards
outstanding
1. 11 – 8 = 3
Three remaining above the 8
2. 11 - 7 = 4
Four remaining above the 7
3. 11 - 6 = 5
Five remaining above the 6
4. 11 - 2 = 9
Nine remaining above the 2
Incidentally, if partner leads their fourth best, the
lead of a 2 shows they have exactly four cards (assuming
they are not leading a 3 card suit for some reason).
Why is the Rule of 11 significant, you ask? Of course, we
always want to cooperate with our partner so it helps to
know where the remaining high cards are held. This helps us
understand the declarer’s assets when promoting the opening
leader’s long suit. After partner leads and the dummy is
exposed, you not only see two hands (yours and dummy’s), you
can now calculate the declarer’s remaining high cards in
partner’s led suit.
On #2 above, 11- 7 = 4. If dummy exposes one card above
partner’s 7 and you hold two cards above the 7, then only
one card remains above the 7 in the declarer’s hand, as:
9 3 2
A J 8 7 5
K 10
Q 6 4
When the play comes around to us (East), without knowing
declarer’s cards we can deduce declarer's honor must be an
Ace, Queen, or the Jack (we can see our King, 10, and
dummy’s 9). Being a good partner, we go up with our King,
normally playing third hand high.
When declarer does not win the trick, we realize we should
return the 10 so partner can pin South’s Queen to take the
first 5 tricks.
Now let’s look at a hand where the Rule of 11 really pays
off. Partner leads the 3, so: 11 – 3 = 8. Here are the
hands:
Q 9 5 4
A 10 6 3
K J 8 7
2
Play begins with partner’s 3, dummy’s 5 and it’s our
play. Do we automatically play third hand high? Hopefully
not for several reasons! First, we should never play the
King – if we decide to play “high”, the Jack would be a more
efficient play. Declarer South cannot hold the Queen so if
we play the Jack, our King remains to pin the dummy’s Queen
on a subsequent play. This concept is known as playing from
“lowest equals”, meaning third hand player should hold
“cover cards” over the dummy’s potential winners.
Yet before jumping up with a high card in third seat,
let’s see if we can learn more about the declarer’s hand
using the Rule of 11. 11 – 3 = 8. Dummy exposes four cards
above leader's 3. Well, small wonder – we have four cards
above the 3 in our hand as well! Interesting - the declarer
cannot beat the lead of the 3! If we don’t use the Rule of
11, we go up with the Jack, win the King, play to partner’s
Ace, giving dummy the fourth trick with the remaining Queen.
But if you play the lowly 7 on the first trick which smartly
wins (etiquette says we should try not to look smug), return
to partner’s Ace, your remaining King-Jack have the
dummy’s Queen pinned. Ah, the joys of nicely executed
promotion and a finesse – well done!
The subject of which card to lead from an honor-less suit
has two schools of thought. While some still advocate
leading their fourth best card, others insist the lead
should promise honor values; the lead from honor cohorts
recommend leading the top card or second from top to warn
partner you do not wish to see the suit continued. This
tactic works well when making a neutral, passive lead as
dictated by bidding, contract, and the leader’s holding.
When the leader’s partner tries the Rule of 11, the result
is a negative number – warning partner the leader has no
interest in the suit. Example 11 – 8 = 3. Yet if you have
two cards above the 8 and the dummy holds three, then the
declarer would have less than zero. Forget “the rule” in
that situation and begin looking for another suit.
Next we will explore which suit to lead against
opponents’ Notrump contract. Earlier we mentioned the
importance of the bidding, the final contract, and the
leader’s holding. Let’s say the bidding goes:
W N E
S
P - (P) – P – (1N);
P - (2N) – P – (3N);
As West, here’s what we have learned from this auction:
1. North did not open: less than 13 points
2. Partner (East) also has less than 13 points
3. South shows a balanced Notrump hand
4. North has invitational values. If opponents would
normally bid conventions (Stayman, Jacoby
Transfers) to find a major suit fit, the responder’s
lack to do so here implies responder probably has
a 4 or 5 card minor suit.
5. South accepts the game invite, showing the upper
end of the Notrump opening values.
Now let’s look at various hands to determine our opening
lead:
S A Q 10 7 2
H 7
D 9 6 3 2
C 8 7 6
Leading the Spade 7 is ideal, especially if partner has
the Spade King – perhaps making 5 quick tricks. Even if
partner holds the Spade Jack, if partner can get in and
return a Spade, there is a good chance to win 4 tricks.
Actually, a nice attribute of this hand is not having too
many honors. Since opponents bidding shows they barely have
enough to bid game (25-26 points) and we hold 6 points,
partner rates to hold around 8 points. Maybe partner has an
Ace and a King – on this hand, we’d love to see partner win
and return a Spade. Hopefully partner is awake and using the
“Rule of 11”, 11 – 7 = 4 outstanding cards above your Spade
7. By the way, leading away from double tenaces is best with
a five card suit; with a four card suit, consider a
different lead. With the same auction, consider your lead
with this hand :
S A 7
H K J 7 3
D 3 2
C K 10 9 6 4
While our Heart honors are better than those in our Club
suit, we normally lead our five card suit with a primary
honor. If the four card suit has an extra honor, three
versus two, then we should lead the honor bound suit.
Speaking of triple honor suits, here’s our next hand:
S Q J 9
H K Q 10 8 7
D A 3
C 10 9 8
A Heart lead works well on this hand and since we do have
touching honors, we lead the King – the top of our adjacent
sequence. We appreciate our outside entry, the Diamond Ace,
which provides a helpful entry later when opponents try to
promote their long Diamond suit. Note that if we led our
fourth best lead of the Heart 8, opponents might have two
winners: the Jack and Ace. Leading the King may hold them to
one trick, especially if an opponent holds a Jack doubleton.
Incidentally, don’t expect help from partner on this hand.
With opponent’s 25- 26 points and our 12 points, partner
does not hold the Heart Ace. Yet we would be happy if
partner held only the precious Heart Jack on this hand. Did you
consider leading the Spades or Club suit? While they are sequence suits, your best
bet is to promote the powerful Heart suit with three honors.
Here’s a hand almost devoid of points (same auction):
S J 10
H 9 3
D 10 8 6 5
C 9 8 7 3 2
It’s highly unlikely this hand will get on lead again so
choose your lead wisely. First off, remember that Bridge is
not a solo venture – you do have a partner with a lovely
hand! This is a good time to forget those funky minors and
focus on your partner’s majors with lots of entries! After
all, since opponents didn’t try to find a major suit game,
partner must have a heap (we don’t). Choosing among the
majors, the Spade suit is far better so lead your Spade Jack
– the best sequence you have to offer. If conditions are
right, you might be a hero by pinning one of the dummy’s
honors.
This time we’ll boost our hand to an Ace and a flat
4=3=3=3 shape:
S A 9 5 4
H 8 6 4
D 5 3 2
C 7 5 3
Okay, only 4 points here. Opponents 25-26 plus our 4
leaves 10-11 points for partner. Leading the Spade 4 seems
reasonable but may cost your side tricks when declarer holds
the King or Queen. Instead, consider leading the Heart 8 – a
passive lead telling partner you do not have interest in
that suit based on the “Rule of 11”. Perhaps partner holds a
Spade honor sequence (ideally Queen-Jack) and can pin
declarer's Spade King. Regardless, your Ace is unlikely to
go away – when you get in the lead, you can always cooperate
with whichever suit pleases partner, considering partner's
10-11 points to establish a suit.
Let’s keep the same hand but the bidding is quite
different:
W N E
S
P - (1D) – P – (1H);
P - (3D) – P – (3N);
This time the dummy promises a powerful Diamond suit with
6+ cards, which declarer will undoubtedly promote at the
first opportunity. So forget the passive Heart lead,
particularly since declarer bid the suit. With the
threatening Diamond suit, make the aggressive lead of the
Spade 4 and hope for the best. Okay, here’s a new auction
and hand:
W N E
S
P - (P) - P - (1H);
P – (1S) - P - (1N);
P – (2N) - P - (3N);
S 10 8 3
H 9 7 5
D Q 10 7 2
C A 9 3 2
Actually, this auction is quite illuminating. The
opponents did not find a major suit fit, slowly working
their way into a 3 Notrump contract. So with the choice
between the remaining suits, favor the Aceless suit. Why?
The Ace always gives you an entry to promote partner’s
favorite suit. If partner holds the Diamond King-Jack, all
is well – even better holding the Diamond Ace. So lead the
fourth best Diamond 2; partner will know you hold four (you
do lead fourth best, after all) and have an honor.
Normally it’s not a good idea to lead a suit bid by the
opponents, particularly when the bidding indicates the suit
is 5+ cards in length. Yet when opponents began with a
“convenient minor”, perhaps 3 or 4 cards in length, your
lead from a long minor suit with accompanying honors may
generate extra tricks.
W N E
S
P - (1C) – P – (1S);
P - (1N) – P – (2N);
P - (3N) - AP;
S A 8 6
H 7 3
D 10 4 2
C Q J 10 5 3
Lead the Club Queen, a nice top of sequence play. If
partner has either the Ace or King, your side may take 4
Clubs and the Spade Ace to set the contract. On the next
auction, South jumps up with a 2 Notrump opener:
W N E S
P - (P) – P – (2N);
P - (3N) – AP;
S Q J 9 8 4 3
H K 6 2
D Q 7 3
C 10
Recall we lead the top of adjacent honors, here it’s the
Spade Queen. The hands might look like this:
2
J 10 5
Q J 4 2
Q 9 7 6 2
Q J 9 8 4 3
K 10
9 6 2
K 7 4 3
K 7 3
6 5
10
J 8 5 4 3
A 7 6 5
A Q 8
A 10 9 8
A K
Hopefully our partner East is awake and covers our Queen
with the King. Leading our Queen promises the Jack and
either the 10 or the 9. Since East holds the 10, it's clear
West holds the 9 and more Spades – probably many more since
dummy has a singleton and East only holds a doubleton. But
what happens if East supposedly “saves” the King and plays
the 10? Declarer South can see a problem with the suit and
should hold back winning the trick (see Rule of 7). West
continues the suit and East must now win with the King yet
cannot continue the suit – how unfortunate! We can see South
has only 5 quick tricks, needing 4 more to make the 3
Notrump contract. The dummy Club Queen and three Diamonds
will do the trick, with South happily giving up the lead
once to bring the contract home (still holding the Spade
Ace). A thoughtful East will unblock the opening lead by
covering with the Spade King and return the favor with the
10.
This play allows West to set the contract – the Spade
suit is now established and when West wins the Diamond King,
the party is over for declarer who also loses 5 Spade
tricks. Last month we saw how the opener needs to be careful
to unblock a long suit by playing the top card from the
short suit side to provide a critical entry to the dummy
hand. Notice the parallel here – West must play the top card
from the short suit side to unblock the suit, providing
partner a similar entry.
What should we lead when partner has bid and the
opponents end up in a Notrump contract? Remember, Bridge is
a partnership game – keep your partner happy by leading the
bid suit unless you either have a stunning play or are
prepared to apologize for not listening to partner's request
for your help. Next hand, partner overcalls 1 Diamond showing 5 or more,
opponents end up in Notrump and it’s your lead:
S 9 3
H K 8 7 4 2
D K 8 5
C 8 4 3
Initially you hoped to lead your Heart 4, however you
being a good partner, you lead your Diamond 5 to help the
team effort. When holding a doubleton in partner’s suit,
initially lead the top card. Holding the King and 8 against
a Notrump contract, lead the King to help partner promote
the suit. But how about when partner makes a preemptive bid
and you have a suit of your own:
W N E S
P - (P) – 3D – (3N);
S K Q J 9 7
H 10 6 5
D 9 6
C K 4 3
Apparently South has a Diamond stopper, but with our own
honor sequence lead and the outside Club King entry, this
time we have a reason to be disobedient and lead our Spade
King. If all works well, we may get four Spades, one Club
and perhaps a Diamond from partner.
Finally, let’s consider leads against Notrump slam
contracts. If we have a nice Queen high honor sequence or
above, by all means lead the suit. If partner bids a suit or
doubles opponents’ artificial bid, our lead direction is
also clear. But the majority of opponents’ slam auctions are
not quite so easy for us to discern our best lead. Unlike
Notrump contracts beneath slam, when the opponents have 33+
points and we do not have an obvious lead direction, we
should make a passive lead. In opponents' 3 Notrump
contracts, we're assured to win several tricks so promotion
is our mantra. In opponents' slam contract, it's a real
challenge to grab two tricks. Of course, when you do not
have any honors the lead is fairly easy – your only criteria
is to avoid finessing partner’s possible honors; leading an
unbid suit often is a safe lead. When you hold an Ace, King
or Queen without an assisting honor, consider leading
another suit, unless of course they bid a grandslam contract
and your Ace immediately sets the contract! Similarly, if
the opponents had a bidding misunderstanding going too high
and you have an inspired lead, go for it. In summary, the
general idea when opponents bid slam is to make them earn
all their tricks by making a passive lead (next month we
will see the opposite is true when opponents bid slam in a
suit contract).
Next month, we will delve into opening leads against suit
contracts. Some leads such as the sequence card combinations
will follow what we’ve already learned, yet we have quite a
few new techniques to learn so stay tuned.
You can always review this promotion lesson at
BridgeHands
