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 Opening Lead for Beginners 22 by Andy Hung

Opening Leads. They're the card that sets the tempo of all bridge hands, and it is the first strike that the defense gets. Sometimes declarer's contract is rock solid and the lead doesn't matter, or sometimes the contract is too high and declarer is destined to fail.

What is important is that we must make every effort to choose the best opening lead that will give us the best chance to defeat the contract.

In this Series, we will look at how and when we should be leading our doubletons.

Question 1

  Your Hand
 A 6
 8 5 3 2
 8 7 6
 9 7 5 3
 
Q: 1 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
--12
Pass2NTPass3
Pass4PassPass
Pass

You are on lead against 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: A.

The first rule about leading a doubleton is that we always lead the TOP of a doubleton. Not only does this unblock the suit sometimes (for instance, picture partner with KQJxx, leading a low spade may block the suit from running three tricks), but it also informs partner that we can ruff the third round when we play a high spade followed by a lower spade.

Doubleton leads are double edged swords. If it works, the lead works out spectacularly, and if it doesn't, it turns spectacularly bad (for example, you may help declarer find a missing queen). On this deal, we know that partner has an opening hand with five spades, so doubleton leads in partner's suit here is one of the best case scenarios for it.

Your result so far:
Open Question

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Question 2

  Your Hand
 Q 6
 J 7 2
 10 9 8 3
 A 7 5 2
 
Q: 2 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2Pass4
PassPassPass

You are on lead against 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: 10.

The best lead on this hand is the 10 not because it is 'obviously' the best lead, but more often than not, it will work out better than the other options.

When it comes to doubleton leads, leading from honor-doubleton is very much a gamble - a one that will likely turn out bad. The reason for this is because you will require a specific layout for the lead to turn out well. If you don't hit that unlikely target, it will clear up the suit for declarer. Imagine if the Spade suit layout were

............................ x x x
.............Q x........................A x x x x
............................ K J x

Or if it were laid out like this:
............................ K x x x
.............Q x........................A x x x
............................ J x x
Etc, etc.
Now the Q lead has given away the suit completely.

Unless you know that partner has five-plus cards in your honor-doubleton suit, or if your hand is very weak and the honor-doubletin is the unbid suit by the opponents, then I would suggest to heavily steer away from honor-doubleton leads like there's no tomorrow! It is a gamble that is more likely to fail.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 A 6
 9 5 3
 K Q 8 5 4
 K 7 5
 
Q: 3 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
1Pass12
Pass4PassPass
Pass

You are on lead against 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: K.

Although partner did respond 1, our Ace-doubleton in Spades is a lead we should not favor. It is very different story if partner had OPENED 1, then we would know he has at least five Spades, but also that he has an opening hand (i.e. he will have more chances to have values in his suit, unlike a response of 1 which could be made on six points).

Luckily on this hand, we have an alternative - that is, the K. The A lead could prove to be disastrous, if declarer has, say, K x x or the like where our Ace does not capture any Spade honors from declarer.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 K 5
 8 5 4 3
 A Q 8 5 3
 Q 4
 
Q: 4 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
--33
Pass4PassPass
Pass

You are on lead against 4. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: Q.

Partner has opened the bidding with a preemptive 3. At vulnerable, you can expect partner to have a decent suit for that opening. This makes the Q a very attractive (and only) lead. Do not toy around with the K!

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 Q J 9 6 5
 J 2
 7 6
 Q 7 3 2
 
Q: 5 - You are South.

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass2Pass2
Pass3Pass3NT
PassPassPass

You are on lead against 3NT. What do you lead?

 Your choice:
A: J.

The J lead here is a bit unorthodox since we are leading against a No-trump contract where we usually want to lead our longest and strongest suit.

Fortunately for us, we can use the auction to our advantage. We know that our RHO has five Spades, and LHO has a Club suit. The opponents also have a Diamond fit, but have selected to play in 3NT. Basically the auction has told us that Hearts is their weakest suit. Despite holding only a doubleton Heart, we can predict that Hearts will be partner's best suit, so lead the J!

It is very seldom to be leading from a short suit against 3NT unless you know (or you can logically work out) that this is partner's suit.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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