Opening Leads Chapter 8
Not every situation presents an ‘obvious’ opening lead. You may recall the saying that “God didn’t give you AK in the same suit for you to lead any other suit”, as well as the well known rule that you don’t lead an unsupported ace, especially when you hold AQ. There are, however, times when if you think things through, you can come up with what is so unorthodox that it makes so little sense to declarer that it can bring about a quite unexpected result. In the previous chapter we had to come up with an opening lead against 6S. We held AQx of spades. The lead from left field that I suggested was the ace of trumps.
Now for some more opening lead problems
a) Dealer South, EW Vul
The bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | 1 | Pass |
1 | Pass | 2 | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
Your hand:
| 32 |
 QJ3 |
| AK8 |
 97643 |
Your lead?
b) Dealer East, All Vul
The bidding has been:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | 1NT |
| X | 2 | X | Pass |
| 3NT | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Your hand:
| J92 |
| T7632 |
| 4 |
| J543 |
Your lead?
Time to apply some logical thinking. The next chapter will try to do that!
