Basic Opening Leads and Signals 02

Now that I have given a basic summary of opening leads, we need to look a bit further and introduce some important and very useful additions and variations:

Against NO TRUMPS
The lead of the KING asks partner to UNBLOCK or give COUNT. The king would be led from a holding like AKJ10x or KQ1097. With such an agreement, from a holding like KQ72 if you choose the suit to lead against No Trumps, you might lead the QUEEN and not the king (can you imagine the effect that unblocking might have?) and hope that partner reads it correctly, as a good partner will. It is also important to recognise when the lead is from an “Interior sequence” so instead of leading the jack when you hold e.g. AJ1093 or KJ1093, you lead the TEN, which will tell your partner that you have led from an interior sequence. Yes, it will also tell declarer, but declarer will always allow for that possibility anyway if you lead the jack. Against a suit contract my advice is to NEVER lead the jack OR ten if you have an interior sequence. That is something that partner should not expect, just like partner will not expect that you would underlead an ace against a suit contract.

Now let’s return to the lead of the ACE against both NO TRUMPS and when it is a side suit in a trump contract. Firstly, when it is against a No Trump contract. You won’t often hold both the ace and king against 3NT but, if you do, when are you most likely to lead the ace? Since we lead the ace to ask for encouragement or discouragement (ATTITUDE) it is more likely to be from a short suit such as AKx or possibly AKxx. Why? Because with a longer suit such as AKxxx the lead of just one high card is almost certain to BLOCK the suit even when declarer or dummy has a doubleton queen. It’s fine to lead the ace from AKxx and no outside entry as long as you are prepared to lead low next and hope partner started with at least three cards in the suit, OR from a longer suit if you have a sure outside entry. But generally, even if you hold the ace AND king in a suit the lead of the ace is more likely to be from a SHORT rather than a LONG suit and serve two purposes: a) get partner’s reaction and b) allow you to look at dummy and decide how to continue. Always, keep in mind that defending a 1NT contract is going to require a different approach to defending a 2NT or 3NT contract. That is why you always take full notice of the bidding.

It is not always possible to follow the so called ‘rules’ for opening leads and also signals, as we will see during the next chapters. And when it is possible to follow rules and guidelines, there will be times when you, being a very good defender, and knowing that partner is equally a good defender, will need to break the rules and ignore the guidelines. And when you do, your partner will need to be well aware that you are engaging in your ‘left field’ defence. The next chapter will feature a recent deal at X-Clubs which illustrates my point.