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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: To be advised!

Today's problem is all about defensive bidding and the opening lead. Here, I'd advocate that West jump to three hearts at his second turn — a pre-emptive rather than a limit raise, since with a strong hand you can cuebid instead of jumping.

When the opponents ignore you and bid to four spades, what should you lead?

Many regard the opening lead as the most difficult part of the game (because you have so little information with which to work). There seems to be no reason to lead anything other than the partnership suit, but if you lead a low heart and either declarer or dummy has a singleton, you may never get the lead again — and that might be crucial for the defense.

Quite frequently, when you are the weaker defensive hand, it can work well to lead an unsupported honor in your partnership’s bid and supported suit, thus giving you flexibility on your play to trick two.

If you do lead the heart king, partner should play the queen under it, a clear suit-preference signal for a diamond. Now three rounds of diamonds guarantees the defeat of the contract. Note that if you started with a low heart, all declarer needs to do is guess trump to make his game.

This tactic is NOT a good idea when declarer is playing in no-trump. All too often leading an unsupported honor allows declarer to capture a high card that would otherwise have been pulling its weight on defense.

This deal comes from Sally Brock’s “Leading Questions in Bridge.”

Lead with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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