Sniffing Out Opponents' Opening Leads

This is a continuation of the topic about the habits of highly effective bridge players which was posted on January 26, 2007. When we left Toonerville, we were discussing how to identify opponents holding from the opening lead.

The starting point is the standard lead table that is on every convention card. If opponents do not make any changes to the “leads” section, then by default they are representing to you that they have no understanding about opening leads that differ from those shown on the card. The most common change is to modify the lead from AKx. Even though the convention card continues to show the lead of the King as standard from AKx, most modern players lead Ace from AKx.

Assuming you see no material changes in the opening lead section of the convention card, here are a few general rules that you can use to sort out opening leads. First, I will deal with leads against suit contracts and then point out differences in leads against no trump contracts.

Suit Contracts:

1. If the lead is a medium sized non-honor card (6-9), generally this indicates shortness (doubleton or single) in that suit or is a 4th best lead. Looking at your 26 cards you should be able to tell. If the partnership leads top of nothing in a suit contract from 3 or 4 small cards, the convention card must be modified to disclose that.

2, It the lead is a small card (2-5) it frequently is a signal that opening leader has some values in the suit.

2. Unless the convention card is marked to disclose the lead of an Ace from Ace/King, the lead of a King guarantees holding either the Ace or Queen. If you are lucky enough to have an opponent that leads a King from any other sequence you should rejoice!

3. Good players rarely lead an unsupported Ace in a game level suit contract, so if you see the Ace, you should expect the King to accompany it. Unaccompanied Aces are sometimes lead against part score contracts, and it often means that leading the other suits is unattractive. Finally, good players do not underlead an Ace in suit contracts, so if the suit is led and you don’t see the Ace, it is on your right.

4. The lead of a Jack or 10 is one of three things in standard leads. It could be from a doubleton, but honor doubleton leads are rare unless partner has bid the suit. More likely the card led is either supported by the next lower card, or the lead is the start of an interior broken sequence such as KJ10x or Q109x. Note, if there are two touching cards higher in an interior broken sequence (like KQ10) the standard is to lead from the top (the King).

5. There is one overriding factor in this discussion. If the opening leader’s partner has bid a suit, often opening leader will lead that suit. If you see an Ace, King or Queen led, most often that is the highest card he has in partner's suit. If you see a low card led, it is unlikely that opening leader has a high honor in that suit, but might have a Jack or ten. If opening leader has not supported the suit he will usually lead low from 3 or 4 small cards to make sure that partner does not think he has led from a doubleton. If he has supported the suit, the lead will usually be a high card since opening leader would not have supported partner holding only 2 small cards.

6. As a general rule, opening leader’s partner is more likely to have a good suit if he made an overcall and may have more holes in the suit if he opened the bidding with it.

7. Most players do not lead trump if they have a singleton trump. Nor do they lead trump if they have length in trump. A trump lead almost always indicates 2 or 3 trump and no significant trump cards. If you are missing an honor in trump, look for it in the other hand. If you are looking for honors in other suits, suspect opening leader. One of the reasons he leads trump is to get rid of the board's trump so he can score his outside values. Another reason is that with his honor holding in other suits, leads of those suits are unattractive. So, all other things being equal, he is a top suspect to have missing honors.

No Trump Leads

1. The lead from 3 or 4 small cards is just reversed from suit contracts. From 3 or 4 small cards, the standard is to lead from the top in no trump contracts.

2. Most leads are 4th best, but when there is a reason, you often see the lead of a non-honor card in a major suit of less than 4 cards. The reasons for this are (i) the opening leader has nothing in his hand to promote or (ii) the opening leader has a 4 card suit with a secondary unsupported honor (Qxxx)and knows it it a poor suit to lead or a tenace that he didn’t want to lead away from (A/Q,K/J or even Q/10) and (iii) almost invariably the opening leader does not have a 5 card suit to lead. Often you see these unusual major suit leads either because of a negative Stayman response or the failure of responder to use Stayman. Leading from fewer than 4 cards in a minor suit is rare absent indications (such as lead directing doubles of artificial bids) from partner.

3. Honor leads are identical to honor leads in suit contracts, except that the lead of a King usually is a request to partner to unblock the suit by throwing his highest honor card. This lead is not good news for declarer! In no trump contracts players frequently underlead Aces, so the Ace is not marked the way it is in a suit contract. Occasionally you will also see the lead of the Queen from AQJxx(x). Hold up on the King as long as you can and and once you spend it, take all your finesses away from your LHO.

Assume an opponent makes a lead that is inconsistent with the partnership’s card and you are disadvantaged by reliance on the lead disclosure. What do you do now. Call the director! Are you likely to get relief? Unfortunately not, since the opening leader’s partner is going to swear on a stack of bibles that they have no understandings contrary to the disclosure on the card and it was just ignorance on the part of the opening leader who made a dumb, but fortunate mistake. Disgusting, but this is not a perfect world. Still calling the director is the thing to do, since you make a record of the event and may prevent a recurrence.

Actually, most opponents are ethical about leads and disclosure, most often your reliance is not misplaced. That being the case, if you have a framework for analysis, you will be able to smell out most leads through a process that is manageable even for normal people.