Friday, August 18, 2006 10:17 PM

Hand Evaluation – Opening leads ( Ask Questions )

PITBULLS:

The rules of Bridge are against non disclosure . You are entitled to the same information as the opponents have announced with their bidding. Your opening leads depend on their bidding so sometimes your bidding depends on their system. Professional players ask a lot of questions about your bidding. Do you think they are just interested in what system you are using ? They want to have all the available information before they lead or bid & so should you !

My partners & I have different understandings after a strong NT depending on whether their 2♣ overcall or double is artificial. If both bids are artificial , we just ignore them so systems are on including transfers. We have a special understanding over their artificial 2♣ that a double is Stayman. The meaning of XX changes , depending on whether the double is penalty or artificial. If artificial , the XX retains the standard meaning of a good hand so let me at them. If the double is penalty , the XX shows a single suited run out. In other words , you have no idea what is going on, unless you ask questions.

My partner was on lead against an opponent who had their own meaning of a 2NT rebid. The auction went

1♣-P-1♠-P

2NT-P-4♠-P so you are on lead with ♠Axxxx ♥AQxx ♦x ♣Qxx . You ask what the 2NT bid means . It is explained as long clubs with as many as 16 HCP. You have 12 HCP & they responded , so partner is limited with very little on this auction. Where is the heart king ? The odds that it is in declarer’s hand is miniscule as he just shows spades so partner or the 16 HCP board has that card. How are clubs behaving for declarer ? They look good so a blind lead is not recommended. Leading a singleton blind when partner is marked with very little points with you having long trump is silly. You will just find a queen for them & allow declarer to retain control of the hand with a bad trump break coming their way. Anyway , partner leads the heart Ace , the board hits with ♠void ♥Jxxx ♦AQJ ♣AK109xx . I encourage in hearts so partner continues & declarer ruffs. Declarer had 6 spades , so he is now down to the same length as partner. Partner ducks the spade Ace , takes the next one & declarer has lost control of this hand. Declarer finesses the diamond, I win the King so declarer goes down 3 vul getting no diamond tricks with his 6-5 in spades & diamonds.

Opening leads are bidding dependent. You translate the bidding into patterns & HCP’s so you get a good idea where all the HCP’s are located via the 40 HCP’s in the deck rule. Your opening leads are a result of asking the opponents questions . If the opponents give you wrong information that result in the incorrect opening lead , there are rules & laws to handle those situations. Silence is not golden when opening leads are concerned. Be sure the opponents have let you in on their bidding secrets. Use all the information available to you or advantage opponents.