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Lessons/Teachers
Jim and Keran SandersAn Easy Intro to Duplicate Bridge
Bill & Sue TrebleExperienced accredited bridge teachers
Neil KimelmanPublished Author of 2 Bridge Books
Jerry CohenLessons in the Comfort of Your Home
Learn How to Play Bridge Seminar
Opening Lead Quiz:
Notrump Contracts
1. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠Q1053 ♥KQ63 ♦1076 ♣63
West North East South
- 1♣ Pass 1♥
Pass 1♠ Pass 1NT
All Pass
What do you lead? At IMPs?
2. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠1053 ♥KQ63 ♦10976 ♣63
West North East South
- - - 1♦
Pass 1♥ Pass 1NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
What do you lead? At IMPs?
3. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠J853 ♥A3 ♦109764 ♣Q8
West North East South
- - Pass 2NT
Pass 3♠1 Pass 3NT
All Pass
1Slam ty with 6 clubs
What do you lead? At IMPs?
4. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠853 ♥Q1092 ♦AJ76 ♣J3
West North East South
- - Pass 1NT
Pass 2♣ Pass 2♥
Pass 2NT Pass 3NT
All Pass
What do you lead? At IMPs?
Opening Lead Quiz:
Notrump Contracts
Solutions
1. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠Q1053 ♥KQ63 ♦1076 ♣63
West North East South
- 1♣ Pass 1♥
Pass 1♠ Pass 1NT
All Pass
What do you lead? At IMPs?
Solution 1
When leading against 1NT contracts, safety is a good policy. This is especially true when the opponents have bid both your suits. They opened a club, so that leaves a diamond. When leading from a three card suit with three small, some people believe that attitude is the most important message and would lead the 10 from this diamond holding (or the 8 from 853).
I disagree, and believe count is more important, and would lead the 6. Also at teams. The full deal:
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♠AJ64 |
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♠Q1053 |
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♠987 |
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♠K2 |
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2. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠1053 ♥KQ63 ♦10976 ♣63
West North East South
- - - 1♦
Pass 1♥ Pass 1NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
What do you lead? At IMPs?
Solution 2
Again, the opponents have bid your two suits. A diamond may be safe, but easily could cost a trick. Here are two examples where you would regret leading the ♦10:
A83
10976 Q
KJ542
QJ3
10976 A
K8542
Anyways, back to the problem at hand, the best lead is the 6 of clubs. Why not a spade? Partner had a chance to overcall 1♠, but didn’t. Ergo, he denies 5 spades with some values. Better chance to hit a club suit in his hand. The full deal:
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♠Q987 |
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♠1053 |
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♠KJ64 |
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♠A2 |
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3. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠J853 ♥A3 ♦10796 ♣Q82
West North East South
- - Pass 2NT
Pass 3♠1 Pass 3NT
All Pass
1Slam ty with 6 clubs
What do you lead? At IMPs?
Solution 3
Here, the best lead at teams and matchpoints is the same, but for different reasons, the ♥A. You know that the club position is favourable. And that N-S have between 28-32 HCPs. They are going to take a lot of tricks when they get in. A heart lead holds them to 11 tricks and an above average score.
At Teams you are hoping to run a suit. It is unlikely, but hearts is the only chance. Why? Partner has at most 5 HCPs. The only holding in a suit where this can defeat this contract is ♥KQxxx. Looking at the full deal, imagine East and South switching their major suit queens.
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♠A4 |
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♠J853 |
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♠Q76 |
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♠K1092 |
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4. Both vul, Pair scoring you hold as West: ♠853 ♥Q1092 ♦AJ76 ♣J3
West North East South
- - Pass 1NT
Pass 2♣ Pass 2♥
Pass 2NT Pass 3NT
All Pass
What do you lead? At IMPs?
Solution 4
How come they keep bidding you suits!! Here the opponents took an invitational auction to game. In close games it pays to lead conservatively, regardless the form of scoring. Here a diamond is too risky, a heart is riskier, and a club, who knows??
A spade though dummy’s length is a standout. Again the three is the better lead, so partner can distinguish if you ae leading from xx or xxx. The full deal:
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♠A1072 |
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♠853 |
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♠QJ96 |
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♠K4 |
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Both vul, IMPs at IMPs scoring you hold as south: ♠A ♥K93 ♦AK106 ♣AK1063
What do you open?
NOTE:Just to let you know my new book, The Right Bid at the Right Time is has been released and is available for purchase.
Here is a hand from a recent match between two tops teams in the Canadian Online Teams Championship. Sitting South was a so-called expert. He decided to open 2NT.
Yes, this is close to the right point count. Yes, this simplifies the auction. Yes, this is one of the worse bids I have seen from a high caliber player.
Yes, that is unfortunately true. Time and time again I see players showing notrump shape with singletons. (Haven’t seen it with a void yet!) This is lazy bidding. First your auction is easier, but inaccurate. Natural bidding will be beat notrump auctions 9 times out of 10. Another reason players do this is that they can all but guarantee they will be declarer. What that has to do with Partnership Bridge, I am not sure.
The best bid is 1♣. One bids are up to 21 HCPs. That is what you have. Having said that the only reason I open 1♣ is that your suits are the minors, which are notorious difficult to describe when you have to start at the two level. Better to open 1♣ and make a one round force with 2♦. You can still force to game.
This hand is VERY good. Much better than your high card will indicate. Much better than a 2NT opener. Give partner ♠xxxx ♥Qx ♦Qxxxx ♣xx and 6♣ is an excellent contract.
Back to what happened at the table? South got his just desserts in my view. The full deal:
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♠ Q108764 |
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♠ KJ932 |
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♠ 5 |
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♠ A |
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North transferred into 4♠, down one when declarer’s play matched his bidding.
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Test Your Lead Defence
Column 11
N-S vul, Playing Teams as South you hold: ♠Q7652 ♥106 ♦J52 ♣K73
The bidding:
West North East South
- - 1NT Pass
2♣ Pass 2♥ Pass
3NT All Pass
What do you lead?
Well 4th best from longest and strongest is a spade. Is this a good lead? Not really. Partner has one or two spades. Declarer is guaranteed to have two stoppers.*
A heart is also unlikely to be successful as declarer has shown at least four of them. Partner could have AQJ10x, but if so, likely not another high card.
Down to the minors – two honour thirds. Toss a coin?
No. (Even if you want to show off your new $5 coin). Partner had a chance to double 2♣ for a lead and didn’t. So a small inference, but it is the small inferences that can lead to success or failure.
*Actually that is not technically true. He may have only one if partner has ♠AK. But you still would need two entries – one to knock out the stopper, and one to cash two good spades. The full deal:
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♠9 |
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♠K 10 8 3 |
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♠ A J 4 |
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♠ Q7 6 5 2
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Eventually declarer will likely take a club finesse for his ninth trick, and go down.
Lessons to Learn
1. Remember to look for the ‘dog that didn’t bark’ inferences.
2. The spade situation is one that is worth being familiar with: A five card suit to be set up when you know one opponent has four of them. Q87xx is the worst holding that can be theoretically set up on the first in one round.
K654
Q8732 A10
J9
Also in this situation always lead a small spade:
J10543 lead the 4
J10943 Lead the 4
QJ1043 Lead the 4
KQ1043 Lead the 4
KQJ43 Lead the 4
AKQ43 Lead the 4
AKQJ4 Okay, you got me, lead an honour.
Test Your Lead Defence
Column 10
N-S vul, Playing Teams as South you hold: ♠8765 ♥106 ♦J1086 ♣KJ3. The bidding:
West North East South
- - 1♦ Pass
1♥ Pass 2NT Pass
3NT All Pass
What do you lead? At Matchpoints?
So we know that East has 18-19 HCPs, denies 4 hearts and diamonds is his better minor. West has exactly 4 hearts, enough points for game, but not enough to try for slam. Not a lot there to go on, but we still need to lead. The spade is the obvious choice. It is one of the unbid suits and you have four of them. The other three suits, though, do have their allure.
A lead through dummy’s 1st suit where we know partner has at least four may be right. But partner could have doubled asking for a heart lead, and declarer may play on hearts himself, losing to partner’s honours behind dummy.
You have a good diamond holding to lead from. However we know East has at least four (did you figure that out?) it is unlikely to be very successful.Clubs you need the least from partner for this to be successful. And we know it is East’s shorter minor. However if partner has only small cards, it will kick at least one trick. However since we are playing teams it is not an important factor. A club is by far the best lead. Why?
1. Usually partner will have at least four clubs on this auction.
2. You need the least from partner for a club lead to be successful.
3.You have only 5 high card points so partner rates to have entries, so you want to set up his suit, if has one.
Another way to look at it, if partner has AQxx in a black suit, if it is clubs you have four tricks. If it spades, you may only have one if East has ♠KJx(x)!
The full deal from a CBF Online Championship match held last week:
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♠10 3 |
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♠J 4 2 |
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♠A K Q 9 |
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♠8 7 6 5
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I led the ♣J and we beat 3NT. Either the ♣J or ♣K has merits, but not the ♣3. The reason is when setting up partner’s suit you need to unblock your honours, just the way you do when declaring 3NT.
Notice that E-W are in the wrong game. West suppressed his weak 5 card heart suit, not a good idea. Had you led a heart the contract would have made, and you would have egg on your face. Just because it wouldn’t work on this deal, don’t let it deter you from considering it next time.
Should you lead a club playing matchpoints?
The answer depends on your risk tolerance. It is still a very logical alternative, and I would still lead a club. But 14 out of the 16 other souths would likely lead a safe spade.
Lessons to Learn
1. Even the best logical lead will not work on every deal. Try to make the lead that will on average be the best.
2. You want to try and go with the field playing pairs, but don’t stop thinking and playing bridge.
Test Your Lead Defence
1, 2, 3
Playing Match Points as North you hold: ♠Q76532 ♥5 ♦AK ♣K952.
The bidding:
West North East South
- - 2♦1 Pass
4♥2 Pass 5♣ Pass
5♥ All Pass
1. Flannery, 5 hearts and four spades, 11-16 HCPs.
2. Long hesitation.
What do you lead?
A way to break down deciding on a lead can be broken down into 3 separate parts:
1. Give the opponents likely hands based on the bidding.
2. Visualize how the play will go, or what will be declarer’s strategy, based on these reconstructions.
3. Picking a lead.
Here, your opponents have told you a lot of information. North has shown 4-5-0-4 shape with a good 15-16 HCPs. Why? Because East’s 4♥ bid denied slam interest, but North forced his side up to the five level anyways. What about South?
South hesitated then bid game in hearts, but signed off in 5♥ in tempo. You can make inferences about the opponents’ hesitations, but you do so at your own risk. Here you know South is usually a quick bidder. What does he have?
He bid game in hearts, so he has 3 or 4 hearts, maybe five. Probably not a lot of points, but hoped to scored enough trumps separately to make game. But he was not excited about the slam try. He has diamonds, likely lots of them. This is the only thing that makes sense.
So part 1 is over. Next what will declarer want to do? South may have 10 or more red cards. In all likelihood they will try a cross ruff of some sort, South ruffing clubs and spades and North’s hand ruffing diamonds.
If you got this far part 3 is easy breezy – lead a trump! The full deal:
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♠Q 7 6 5 3 2 |
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♠10 |
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♠A J 9 4 |
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♠K 8
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This hand took place at the Dec 30th Pairs game at the Tuxedo Bridge Club. If you are like 90% of players you look at AK and lead a diamond. ILove leading from this combo as much as the next person. But this is a thinking game. If you play rotely you get what you deserve.
A very good player did just that and I made 7!! I ruffed with 4, playing 3 rounds of trumps, winning the third round with the Queen. I then played ♦J, ♦K, ruff with the last trump in dummy, ruff a club and ran the diamonds. I scored 5 hearts, 6 diamonds, and 2 aces. A trump lead deprives me of the needed extra entry to set up the diamonds.
Lessons to Learn
1. You can never take advantage of your partner’s hesitations during the bidding and play, only the opponents.
2. It is unethical to hesitate when you know what you will bid or play to the trick. A bad habit of some players is they hold their card in the air, or just hesitate, but are actually thinking about the next trick(s).
3. It is a good habit to visualize hands and holdings as the bidding is going on. At first this may be difficult, but, like most things in life, it gets easier with practice. If someone opens a spade they have five of them.
Examples:
In this way you will be able to do the three part analysis much quicker at the end of the bidding.
