Thursday, November 16, 2006 1:55 PM

Leading Blind III

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” and 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 and 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 and 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 and the auction screams for that lead , lead them. The “house” has a big advantage if you lead blind anyway, so it’s the lesser of the two evils time after time.