Tuesday, June 15, 2004 1:25 PM

Tactical Bidding - Leads

PITBULLS:

When you are playing with a partner very much weaker then you are , there is a well known master minding technique to do everything possible to help her off to a good opening lead. You put in a lead directing bid or double every chance you get. 3^rd seat is built for opening leads. Always assume that the auction is about to go 1NT-P-3NT if you do pass in 3^rd seat. Open a 4 card major rather then a bad minor to get partner off to a lead. Do anything to help her out.

O.K. you are now playing with your expert partner. There is no reason not to help her with her leads also. Just in one night in a local club game, I had three hands which re-enforces this practice. My partner opened 4♥ nv and the vul opponents doubled and I held xxx xxx xxx AKJx . I passed and LHO bid 4♠ and around to you . You decide that you are going to sacrifice to 5♥. You may as well bid 5♣ along the way. They bid 5♠ and the board is void in hearts and if partner tries to cash the heart Ace they make 7 spades. Partner led a club and we cashed 3 club tricks for one down !!

I passed this hand 10xx xx KQJ109 xxx and partner opened 1♠ in 3^rd seat and your RHO overcalled 2♣ . A minor overcall at the two level is another danger signal. Always assume the auction is going to go 2NT-p-3NT . Do not bid 2♠ with this hand but use the fact that you are a passed hand to your advantage and bid 2 or 3♦. They are less likely to bid 3NT when you introduce another suit for a lead.

The vul opponents opened 1♥ and my partner overcalled a spade and my RHO bid 1NT. You hold J10xx xx xxx KQ109 . OK if you had any values you would double 1NT so this gives you a certain amount of freedom. Your systemic bid is 3♠ pre-emptive but what if the auction went 4♥ to your left and partner is on lead. A much better bid in my opinion is 2♣ which will help partner with her lead. The bad part is that you lose the pre-emptive value of the 3♠ bid. You may get a chance to do this later anyway. If they get to 4♥ , a club lead is the only lead to beat the 4♥ contract ! Partner said he would never find a club lead if I jumped to 3♠. Defensive bidding involves assuming the worst and getting partner off to the best lead. Lead directing bids also helps partner in bidding situations as you are “showing where you live”.

Opening leads is one area where partner does not mind being “master minded” . I held a hand with my regular Thursday night partner the other day. I held xxx xxx AKxx xxx and LHO opened 1♣ and partner overcalled a spade with RHO making a negative double. Negative doubles give a great opportunity for lead directing bids. Why are you bidding their suits anyway if not for a lead? I bid 2♦ and we competed up to 3♠ and the final contract was 4♣ by them . A diamond lead and you get plus 200 and a trump lead brought –130 . This is a 8 IMP swing which is not trivial.

Over negative doubles use the re-double as a lead directing bid. A simple raise then can have a meaning of a warning that a lead in our suit might give them an undeserved trick when they buy the final contract. If partner overcalls and they make a 2/1 , a double is lead directing. Doubling a forcing bid makes no sense otherwise ( I do not like snapdragon ). Doubling forcing bids like Jacoby 2NT, Q bidding of our implied suits should all have lead directing implications. Be lead conscious in all auctions.