The opening lead

how to choose a good opening lead

In the following problems, you are on opening lead in defense. The contract is always a garde. One detail that may matter: you are playing a friendly game, not duplicate. Standard signaling methods are used.

First problem

Declarer found in the dog :

17, K, 9-4, Q, 3

Your hand :

15-14-9-7
Q-C-9-7
8-7-3-2
J-7
Q-6-5-1

What is your opening lead when you are seated before or in front of declarer ? What if you are seated after (in the fourth seat) ?

Excluding trumps, we should examine the suits one by one. A club lead is the “classic” choice (long suit + some strength + shortness in the dog). A spade lead would run into the king from the dog and aims at a quick overruff. However, the weakness of this hand does not justify such an aggressive approach. There is no guarantee the king is singleton, and we would practically sacrifice all our spade honors if declarer ruffs. Even if we score an overruff or an uppercut, we would likely be weakening a stronger defensive hand than our own. This lead would be excellent with a truly strong hand (6 or 7 trumps), but here it is too ambitious for our partners.

A heart lead is rather passive. Moreover, with two hearts in the dog, the risk of leading into declarer’s long suit is too high.

This leaves the diamond lead. Although it goes against traditional opening-lead principles, it is the most dynamic choice here — the only one that gives the defense a real chance. In the best-case scenario, if declarer ruffs a diamond, our 15 and 14 of trumps may score effective uppercuts on the third and fourth rounds of the suit. After stripping our trumps quickly, we may be well placed to protect our spade and/or club honors, since declarer will almost certainly control at least one of those suits. Furthermore, if diamonds are declarer’s weakness, we might find a partner with 6 or 7 trumps and 4–5 diamonds, who will certainly appreciate the tempo gained by this lead.

Another advantage is that this lead immediately clarifies the position of the queen seen in the dog. A defender holding, for example, K-x-x-x-x in diamonds might hesitate to lead the suit, fearing to establish declarer’s queen.

This type of short-suit lead should be made only with a weak hand and a dog that encourages it. It should be avoided, for instance, if the dog contains Q-x-x in the suit.

Why lead the jack rather than the 7? If declarer holds K-Q or ruffs, the jack will probably be lost whether it is played on the first or second round. But if declarer holds Q-C and chooses to cover the 7 with an honor, we would lose the jack on the next round under the other honor. Moreover, since we would not lead the jack from J-x-x-x or even J-x-x, our partners will understand that this lead comes from a singleton jack or J-x. That is a basic signal.

What about the lead in fourth seat ?

If a diamond lead was attractive when seated before declarer, it becomes much less so in the fourth seat. As a general rule, avoid leading a short suit from this position when the queen of that suit has been seen in the dog. Imagine declarer smiling with Q-x-x-x-x and receiving an opening lead that immediately establishes the queen. Here we should settle for a solid, “respectful” lead — in a word, the ace of clubs.

Second problem

Declarer found in the dog : 1, C-4, 10, 4-1

Your hand :

21-20-15-3-2
J
10-9-8-7-2
Q-J-7-6
Q-9-6

What is your opening lead, from any seat?

Before choosing a lead, we should ask a few questions. First : what type of hand does declarer have ? The presence of the 21 and 20 in our hand and the Petit in the dog gives us the answer. Declarer has the Excuse well supported and a solid hand in the suits, perhaps two or three kings. What is likely to be declarer’s long suit ? The two spades in the dog and our singleton spade are strong clues.

Do we have a strong defensive hand?  It may look that way, but if declarer’s long suit is spades, our trumps will disappear quickly. In fact, there is probably no truly strong defensive hand, since a defender with length in spades is unlikely to hold more than 3 or 4 trumps. Declarer bid with only one oudler at best, so he must have long trumps. Since we already hold five, that leaves very little for our partners.

With this picture in mind, we have two possible approaches. The first, optimistic line is to lead the long heart suit, hoping to bluff declarer into playing the Petit early. This assumes declarer might not have long spades and instead holds something like “one oudler, seven trumps, and two kings.”

The second, more realistic line is to picture declarer with 9 or 10 trumps and long spades. With such a hand, the Petit will reach the end no matter what we do. Our only hope is that a partner holds strong spades and can save points on those winners. Therefore, we should lead trump. This also avoids the horror of ruffing declarer’s losers with the 21 and 20. Since we do not want to advertise a hand with 7 or 8 trumps, we lead the 2 rather than the 3, postponing the cashing of the 21 and 20 as long as possible, in the hope that a partner with only two or three trumps may be able to discard something useful.

So the edge goes to the trump lead, although a heart lead remains a possible alternative. In any case, ruffing declarer’s losers with master trumps is rarely attractive, and we will probably have to cash the 21 and 20 sooner or later. And we must admit that a heart lead from five small cards is not exactly a gift to our partners.

---