OPENING LEADS


Introduction

We have provided Tuition Modules for Basic and Advanced Acol Bidding on the Swanmore Bridge Club Website, under http://www.hants.org.uk/swanmorebridgeclub/  - ‘Tuition’.
For Play of the Cards, I have recommended the introductory and more advanced books by Klinger, plus a book on playing No Trump contracts by David Bird.

I’ve been asked a few times about Opening Leads so have developed below a summary of guidelines on Opening Leads based on Klinger’s books, some EBU materials (including the EBU Standard Convention Card) and a few other books I have. These notes give guidelines on what card to lead once you have chosen the suit. For more guidance on which suit to lead, e.g. an active or passive lead, see Klinger’s “Guide to Better Card Play” book, Chapters 3, 4 and 17.


Leading From Honours

From Touching Honours
Lead the top of the sequence, e.g. AKQx, QJ10x , KQx etc. (But see below, Ace for Attitude, King for Kount.)

From a Split Sequence
Lead the inside card, e.g. KJ10x, Q109x. This is aimed at trapping an honour in dummy. If there is no honour in dummy, partner should go up with his Ace or King if he has one, and lead back through declarer, to trap declarer’s Q or J.
 
From a Single Honour
With three or more cards (not Ace) to an honour, lead the smallest card. In this case, some people mean King or Queen, some people mean King, Queen or Jack (or even 10) – you as a partnership must decide for yourself. However, with three or more cards to the Ace, NEVER lead away from an Ace unless you are leading to partner’s suit (see below).

Don’t lead from Qx or Jx doubleton to try and get a ruff, it gives away a trick too often.

Ace For Attitude, King For Kount
A very useful technique, widely used, is Ace for Attitude, King for Kount. Playing an Ace asks partner if he has some support – either King or Queen, and partner plays a high card to show support. Playing a King asks partner to give a count – high/low for even cards and low/high for odd cards.

A further development of this is Ace and Queen for Attitude. In this case, the play of the Queen asks partner to show support – encouraging with the Ace, King or Jack. This does mean that you need to lead the Queen from KQx or KQxx.


Leading From Rags

MUD
The most commonly used leads from three cards are ‘Top of Nothing’ and MUD (Middle – Up – Down). Klinger and EBU materials suggest MUD, so that is probably the best to use. The benefit of MUD is that it differentiates your holding from: -
•    A doubleton
•    Small from an honour.

With four rags, Klinger and EBU recommend that you lead MUD, even to a No Trump contract.

With five rags, you should lead the fourth longest to a No Trump contract, to allow partner to use the Rule Of Eleven. With a suit contract, this is more tricky, I suggest that the MUD lead is probably best as it shows partner you haven’t an honour.


Leading To Partner’s Suit

Leading to partner’s suit is as follows: -

•    With a doubleton honour, lead the honour to avoid getting blocked.
•    With three or more to the A, K or Q, lead small to ensure your Queen wins or to trap declarer’s Queen if you have one of the top two honours and partner has the other.
•    With two or more cards without an Ace, King or Queen, lead your highest so that partner can work out all the outstanding high cards that declarer holds.