Length or Shirtage? Lead with Barry Rigal

LENGTH OR SHORTAGE?

One of the problems we all have, is when we have no clear lead against a suit contract. When we do not have a sequence or a suit bid by your partner, the choices often boil down to whether to lead a short or a long suit.
Both of these may have some attraction. Let’s look at some examples to see if we can simplify that decision.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ Q 10 8 5 2
♥ A 6
♦ A 6
♣ J 9 4 2

Q: 1 - You are South. What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
1♠	Double	Pass	3♦
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♥A - Lead the heart ace, hoping to find partner with a quick entry, to make sure you can get him in to give you a ruff. The auction has marked partner with some values, so it is not unreasonable to expect to find North with a scattered value or two. Playing for a ruff is always more attractive when, as here, you have trump control – you can reasonably expect to get two bites at the cherry. An alternative is to play for spade ruffs, but the fact that the opponents have come to rest in a minor makes this somewhat less likely to be the winning move.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ K
♥ Q 10 8 5 4
♦ A Q 8
♣ Q 10 7 2

Q: 2 - You are South. What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
1♥	Double	2♥	Pass
Pass	Double	Pass	3♦
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♠K - Lead the spade king. Dummy is overwhelmingly likely to have the spade ace. Your thinking is that you want to put partner in to give you a spade ruff. Lead the spade first while partner, you hope, still has a heart entry. One other thing: if declarer does has a guess in hearts, missing the ace-queen, your not leading the suit at trick one may help him to get it wrong!

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 9 4 2
♥ Q 8 5 4 2
♦ Q 7
♣ Q J 10

Q: 3 - You are South. What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
Pass	2♣	Pass	2♥
Pass	4♠	Pass	Pass
Pass

A: ♣Q - No lead is attractive but I think I would lead a top club. The arguments against a trump lead are that declarer may plan to ruff hearts in dummy – and then get overruffed. Leading a trump might prevent that from happening. The diamond queen might work – but it seems a desperate move. Even if dummy has club length, the diamond queen might well cost a trick.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ J 2
♥ 9
♦ K J 10 5 4
♣ Q J 9 6 5

Q: 4 - You are South. What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
Pass	Pass	Pass	1♥
2NT	3♥	Pass	4♥
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♣Q - The club sequence seems to me a safer lead than a diamond. There is a case for going all out by leading a spade, but since partner did not find a third in hand opener in that suit, I’m more inclined to try to set up a minor and not give away the spade or heart positions.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ Q 7 4 2
♥ Q 9 3
♦ 5 2
♣ Q 10 6 4

Q: 5 - You are South. What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	1♣	Pass	1♥
Pass	2♥	Pass	4♥
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♠4 - This is a common scenario. With a possible trump trick, do you go active or passive. The upside to the spade lead is to set up the suit, a diamond may hit partner, be passive, or get you a ruff when you didn’t have a trump trick. Today’ I’ll go for the spade lead but you could persuade me to lead diamonds.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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