Choosing the suit for your opening lead is an individual judgment. The specific card you lead from that suit, however, is a partnership decision, and it’s an important one. With so many different lead conventions available, how do you determine which work best? Here’s a quick rundown of popular methods and some pluses and minuses of each:
Fourth-best:
Plus: Familiarity (since it’s what most of us learned first) and conservation of spot cards. The Rule of 11 tells you how many higher cards are in declarer’s hand.
Minus: The same card is led from a 3-card or a 4-card suit, making it difficult for partner to determine leader’s length and rely on the Rule of 11.
Note: Most pairs lead second-highest from an honorless suit of four cards or more (the 6 from 8643, for example). The 10 is commonly treated as an honor.
Third and fifth: Third-highest from three or four cards, fifth-highest from five or more cards. A variation is third from an even number, low from an odd number. Both are used mainly for leads to suit contracts. The Rule of 10 or 12 is used to count higher cards in declarer’s hand.
Plus: The same card is led from a 3-card or a 5-card suit, and this disparity makes it easier for partner to determine leader’s length and choose the Rule of 10 or 12.
Minus: Third-highest may be a relatively high spot, which can cost a trick (the 8 is led from Q1082). Some pairs try to fix this problem by agreeing to lead fourth-best if the third-best card is an 8 or higher (some agree 7 or higher), but the more exceptions you build in, the less reliable the spot-card leads will be.
Coded 10s and 9s: A 10 or 9 shows zero or two higher honors – if two, the card led is the bottom of an interior sequence (10 from KJ10x, 9 from Q109x). A jack shows the 10 and denies a higher honor. This convention is sometimes called Journalist or “Jack denies, 10 or 9 implies” (erroneously, since the 10 or 9 promise either zero or two higher honors).
Plus: The coded card gives a clearer picture of leader’s honor holding, which can help partner make a better decision about which card to play to the first trick and whether to continue the suit the later.
Minus: Declarer has the same information and can use it to his advantage.
Attitude leads: The lower the spot card, the more interest leader has in partner returning the suit. Used mainly for leads to notrump.
Plus: The spot card communicates honor strength and the potential for running the suit. It also avoids the ambiguity of a length lead that happens to be a high spot card (playing attitude, you would lead the 2 from KJ9732 instead of the fourth-best 7).
Minus: The lead tells partner little or nothing about length in the suit. Leader sometimes has to make a subjective evaluation of a suit’s potential, which can be misread by partner.
Rusinow: Second highest from touching honors (Q from KQ, K from AK, etc.). Generally used only on the first trick to suit contracts, in a suit partner has not bid.
Plus: On an ace or king lead, there’s no guessing about the location of the other high honor, which makes it easier for third hand to choose the correct signal.
Minus: Not recommended for casual partnerships, as there are many exceptions to discuss.
Ace from AK to suit contracts: (vs. the standard king from AK):
Plus: A king lead always shows the queen, so third hand can make an encouraging signal when he holds the jack.
Minus: An ace lead doesn’t guarantee the king, so third hand has to guess which attitude signal to make when he holds the queen.
Note: Regardless of your agreement, you should lead the king from AK if partner has bid the suit or if you’re defending a contract at the 5-level or higher. In these situations, an ace lead asks partner for attitude regarding the king.
MUD leads: “Middle-Up-Down” from xxx (middle card first, then follow high and low) of a suit partner has not bid.
Plus: The middle spot may be high enough that partner won’t read the lead as low from an honor.
Minus: The middle spot may be high enough that partner mistakes it for a doubleton, but he won’t know for sure until you follow to the second trick.
Note: MUD is aptly named, but the two
alternatives – leading high or low from three small – are also easily misread.
Look for another suit to lead whenever possible.
Note: If partner has bid the suit and you
haven’t raised, always lead low from xxx. If you’ve raised, lead high.
Honor leads to notrump: There are several different schemes for communicating your exact strength. Here’s one that covers most possibilities and is easy to remember (A=Attitude; K=Count):
Ace asks partner to make an attitude signal regarding the queen. You make this lead from a suit such as AK43.
King asks partner to unblock his queen or jack (first priority) or give count. This lead is always from a very strong suit (headed by AKJ10 or AKQ10).
Queen asks partner to unblock of the jack or make an attitude signal regarding the ace or king. Lead the queen from KQ1092 or QJ95.
There’s a story from the 1960s about an expert who published an article titled “Why third and fifth leads are better” in a major bridge magazine. It featured many examples of the problems with standard fourth-best leads and showed how they could be solved by leading third and fifth from length. The writer was regaled with praise from enlightened readers who said they had always known standard leads were inferior, and now they had proof.
The following month, the expert published another article titled “Why fourth-best leads are better”. It offered the same number of examples and equally compelling evidence that third and fifth leads were confusing and ineffective.
This story is probably a bridge “urban legend”, as the articles can’t be located, but it’s easy to understand how they could have been written. Many players will offer fervent arguments about the merits of their favorite lead conventions, but don’t believe anyone who claims one method is clearly superior to all others. Whatever leading scheme you choose, the only critical issues are that you and partner feel comfortable with it and have clear agreements about which card you’ll lead from all possible suit holdings.
© Karen Walker