Set the tempo for Beginners 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. Are you ready?

Question 1

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

Q: 1 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

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

A: ♥10.

This is what we call an interior sequence lead. That is, you have a sequence as well as one top honor that is separated by a gap.

An interior sequence lead can often help partner as to the strength of your suit. For instance, if you lead the ♥8 (fourth-best) on this hand, it's true that partner can still work out that it is fourth-best, but quite often, because the ♥8 looks like it is such a high spot card, partner may have doubts and think that our ♥8 lead is from weakness rather than strength.

Other examples of an interior sequence suits are:
KJ1094 (Lead the Jack)
A10982 (Lead the Ten - against No-trump only)
AKJ103 (Not an interior sequence since you have two bigger honors)
Q9874 (Not an interior sequence, since we do not treat 987 as a 'top of a sequence')

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ K J 10 9 5
♥ 10 9
♦ K J 3
♣ 6 5 4

Q: 2 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	Pass	1NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

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

A: ♠J.

Spades is our longest and strongest suit, so that's what we're going to lead. Our Spade suit is another one of those interior sequence holdings, so the correct card to lead here is the ♠J.

Note that these interior sequence leads, the ♠J here, does not always promise a higher honor. Here, the ♠J merely promises the ♠10 and ♠9, and MAY have a higher honor - that is, it is a top of a sequence, but may be from an interior sequence.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 8 7 5 2
♥ 6 3
♦ A 10 9 8 6
♣ Q 8

Q: 3 - You are South.

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

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

A: ♦10.

Comparing the holdings in the unbid suits from our own hand, our Diamonds are much better than the Spades.

Our Diamond suit is again another interior sequence holding, so lead the ♦10, which promises the ♦98, and may have a higher honor.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

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

Q: 4 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

We're getting very good practise leading against 3NT's. What do you lead here?

A: ♥K.

Our Heart suit is NOT an interior sequence. With this Heart suit, it is best to lead the King here, which promises the Queen and normally the Jack as well, but if we don't have the Jack, then we should have the ♥10 as well as the ♥9 (recall the previous quiz set).

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ K 2
♥ Q 9 8 7 6
♦ A 8 4 3
♣ 9 6

Q: 5 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	1♠	Pass	1NT
Pass	3NT	Pass	Pass
Pass

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

A: ♥7.

Our Heart suit is almost an interior sequence lead. Unfortunately, we don't count 9876 as a 'sequence', so we must lead the fourth-best here.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

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