OPENING LEADS

Like “ catches win the matches “ in cricket ,in  Bridge the skill of giving accurate “ opening lead”  more often decides  the winning team !  The opening lead is thus most crucial in the game of bridge .

In Bridge after three consecutive passes bidding ends and  the first chance to play  is given to the person of opposite team who sits   on the left of the declarer. This is by design .This is  a golden opportunity given to defense to upset the contract. If this  opportunity of giving  a correct  lead which can put  declarer in the spot  is lost, then the scoring of contract at times becomes a cake walk for the declarer. In many  deals  the opening lead decides the fate of the declarer . In almost all the  championships , the winning pairs  have  not only excellent bidding and card handling skill , but more importantly they win because they  have sharp skill of upsetting  the contract bidded  by their opponents by giving an accurate killing leads  .It is observed that the pairs who have mastered the art of defence score better than those who lag this vital skill.

Now to know what is the correct lead and how to master the art of giving correct lead is something which perhaps  one can learn with experience only. There is  no set of  fixed  rules which if one follows meticulously  can master the art. Expertise doesn’t come before experience even in the dictionaries ! Even after huge experience experts err perhaps  because one never repeats the deal in his lifetime. There are however certain guidelines which if followed sometime and ignored  in some other situations will help and probability of success can be higher. When to follow the guidelines and when to ignore them is a matter of Judgmental skill. If you keep playing bridge this judgmental skill  is likely to improve however there is no guarantee. The words like.   “ always”, “never” , “Guarantee” don’t have a place in this game and that is precisely why it is one of the most absorbing and the most interesting game.

When one has to lead he /she can sees only 13 cards and has to decide lead based on   information of  the bidding of opponents and his own partner. Only after a card is led the dummy’s  cards are spread and visible to all.  Subsequently if the opponents get chance to lead he or she has more clarity as dummy’s cards are visible and compared to giving an  opening lead the task is easier . Which card to lead in the beginning , depends on several factors including

1         what is the final contract ? (No trump or in any one suit)

2          what is the level of final contract (part game level, Game level LS level or Grand slam level)

3         whether your partner has taken part in the bidding or not ?

4  What was bided by your Right hand side person and left hand side person ?

If your partner has taken part in the bidding  then one gets reasonable hint of “what to lead “or “what not to lead “ , however when the partner has remained silent you have to  depend on the information of your opponents’ bids and your own 13 cards.

The strategy of selecting lead is entirely different in suit contracts  and No-trump contracts.

In  the suit contract you can defeat the opponents if you get an extra trick  by a  ruff or if you can win your all  high cards before the declarer gets chance to discard his losers. Declarer will obviously  remove  trumps from your and your partner’s hand at the earliest opportunity. At times it will not be possible for the declarer to remove all  the trumps on his first chance  as you or your partner could be holding trump Ace which will sometime  give you  another opportunity to upset the contract provided initial opening lead was good. Example for this is you have a singleton suit and two small trumps and  your partner has ace of trump suit. In this case you are likely to  get the trick of your small trump if you lead the singleton suit. As soon as your partner wins his trump ace he will return the suit which was singleton and you will get a trick by ruffling. However if you don’t lead singleton suit in the beginning you are unlikely to get a ruffling trick as your trump will be removed by the  declarer before repeating the suit. One is therefore supposed to play the shortest suit in the beginning  to increase the chances of getting a trick by ruff. One is not advising that always lead the singleton ….in bridge as mentioned before  there are  no certainties but  only guidelines ….Each deal is a new deal and logic changes   every now and then !

In No trump  contract it is important to establish your  suit and the success depends on whose suit gets established first ? Yours or your opponents’ ? The length of the suit has great importance even if  the cards may be small. Leading forth from the top of the best suit is usually considered good lead if the partner is silent and your best suit is not bided by the opponents.

In Grand  slam contract finding the neutral lead is the best strategy while in Little slam contract en-cashing the sure winning Ace is considered reasonably good lead.Some contracts are ice-cold meaning no matter what opponents lead declarer is certainly going to win. Not all deals have a killing lead to upset the contract but giving a good lead makes declarer’s life tough and he can then win only with a particular sequence of play if he errs he gets defeated. Below  are mentioned some guidelines or standard leads

For suit contract       Partnrr’s called suit Or shortest suit or touching honor(K out of KQ ,J out of J,10)or ace of the 6 carded suit hoping P will have singleton ,or Dummy’s call or doubleton high low signal are the options

For Nt suit     4th from the longest suit , honor of the suit if you have 3 honors,partner’s suit or dummy’s call or un-bided suit are the options.

Which option to select in a given situation is individual’s judgment. I can only wish you all the best  in giving opening lead  because more than 20 to 25% of time you will have to give lead .Never mind if you err occasionally there is always a next  deal and next time in this wonderful  game  !!   

                       R J PHANSALKAR