Breaking the Rules by Barry Rigal

BREAKING THE RULES

There are few players more disciplined than me (and if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would be happy to sell you). We all have rules about which card to lead from specific holdings; but sometimes circumstances alter cases. That may be so in the following set – or alternatively I could be about to advocate leading fourth highest of longest and strongest. If you don’t try the set, you will never know…

Question 1

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

Q: 1 - What do you lead as South?

South	West	North	East
-	1♦	Dbl.	1♠
2♥	Pass	Pass	2♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♣Q: Nothing seems very attractive, but leading the club queen might get that suit going for your side, and set up winners there before declarer can establish the diamonds for discards. Particularly where your partner has not raised hearts and the opponents have bid the other two suits, partner is marked with length, if not strength, in clubs.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ Q 4 3
♥ J 9 5
♦ Q 10 8 6 5 3 2
♣

Q: 2 - What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♣
3♦	Dbl.	4♦	4♥
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♦2: Lead the diamond two. Your best chance to get something going on defense is to get some club ruffs. Leading an unusual diamond spot should wake partner up to this possibility; the two also has suit-preference overtones for the lowest suit, clubs.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

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

Q: 3 - Against 3NT, what do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
Pass	2♦	Pass	2♥
Pass	3♣	Pass	3NT
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♣2: I think the right lead on this auction is clubs, marginally better than a spade (as a general rule you try to hit declarer’s shortage on these auctions). If so, there is much to recommend the lead of the jack not a small card, though it goes against the general rules about leading low from three. If partner has length – or two honors in clubs, this may be the best way to get the suit going.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 8 3
♥ Q 7 6
♦ A 8
♣ A Q 10 9 7 3

Q: 4 - What do you lead?

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
2♣	2♦	Pass	2NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

A: ♣A: The best bet to get the clubs going on defense is to lead the ace. If dummy puts down the doubleton jack you can follow up with the club queen to pin it, and if you believe a switch is in order there may still be time to attack hearts.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ Q 7 2
♥ A 7 4 3 2
♦ K 10 6
♣ K J

Q: 5 -

South	West	North	East
1♥	1NT	2♥	2♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

A: ♥3: Lead the heart three. To all of you who ‘never’ underlead an ace, I want to suggest that this might be the exception that proves the rule. In this case all the alternatives are so unpalatable that you might as well lead a low heart instead of the ace. After all, it is very likely that any trick you might give up if declarer has a singleton will come back by your not allowing him a discard.

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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