Thursday, November 16, 2006 1:55 PM

Hand Evaluation – Opening Leads ( Guessing )

PITBULLS:

I was mentoring the other night and the auction went 1♥-P-1♠-P

2♣-P-2NT-P

3NT-P-P-P

The mentoree was on lead with ♠AKxx ♥Q10xx ♦Qxx ♣10x so you indeed have a difficult lead. Opening leads can be equated with the “house” at a Casino with the game of Blackjack. The house has an edge because the player has to guess and accept a card before the house plays. By making these blind guesses , a player “breaks” so the house does not even need to play when at 17 .

If you lead blind by guessing , you give the house ( declarer) a real advantage. A blind lead is still another example of single handed decisions detrimental to partnership Bridge. My partner guessed to lead a diamond. This picked off by doubleton jack with their 5 card concealed diamond suit so they brought in a ridiculous 3NT contract. Note the difference if he led the spade king to look at the board ♠x ♥AJxxx ♦K10x ♣AQxx . I held ♠J109x ♥K98 ♦Jx ♣J987 so I would play a high spade which should be interpreted for a heart switch. Declarer should cash out for down 3 vulnerable because if he does not , it could be worse. We would take 1♦ , 3♥ , 4♠ for down 4 vul.

You have a tough lead with that hand. A spade lead could also be very wrong also but since it is not blind there is still time to switch & you bring partner into the equation. You do not have to play this game alone. Partner is put there for a purpose so allow her to help with your guesses. All of a sudden , your leads will improve with partners input.

When you have unsupported Aces but the auction screams for that lead , lead them. The “house” has a big advantage when you lead blind anyway, so it’s the lesser of the two evils time after time. Pre-emptive auctions quite often means lead an unsupported Ace. 4^th best from longest & strongest is just a guess when the bidding calls for a different suit to be lead. Bidding determines your opening lead , not the card combinations in your hand.

Leading blind sometimes means leading a trump when the auction does not call for it . ♠Qx ♥AJxxx ♦AQx ♣AQx Both vul you open a heart which gets passed to the balancing chir. They bid 1♠ which you double to describe your 19 HCP to partner but LHO now pre-empts to 3♠ which your passed hand partner now doubles. What’s the double mean ? It cannot be a trump stack obviously so partner is just saying that they are just too high with the balance of power in our direction. Partner does not have a heart fit or else she would have kept the bidding open at the one level with her now announced 5 HCP’s. This should not be the time to lead a trump with the shortness in hearts inference. You lead the heart Ace and the doubleton king appears on the board . You continue and declarer wins. Perhaps influenced by partner’s double , declarer finesses the spade & you win the queen and return a heart . Partner over ruffs the board for +500. What if partner had responded & now doubles ? A trump lead is automatic as their only source of tricks must be by ruffing. You now have them overwhelmed with HCP’s but not so with a partner who could not come up with a response. Partner held ♠10x ♥xx ♦KJ10xx ♣J109x & wanted you to bid a minor if your hand was suitable or convert for penalty if not.