Improve Your Opening Leads  (Part 2)

     Originally published in the March & April 2009 issues of the ACBL Bridge Bulletin   


Trump leads

In Part 1, we looked at the types of auctions that provide clues about whether to make a passive or aggressive opening lead. You have a different type of decision when considering a trump lead, which, depending on the auction and your hand, may be an aggressive or a passive choice.

Aggressive trump leads

On some hands, a trump lead can actually be your strongest attack because it shortens declarer's or dummy's trump length. The types of auctions that will give you the strongest clues about this possibility include those where:

Declarer has shown a two-suited hand, especially if you have strength in declarer's non-trump suit. Many players consider it virtually mandatory to lead a trump to an auction such as:

       West     East
                       1D
         1H         2C
         2D        Pass     

If you’re South holding  1098   KQJ   643   AJ96 , lead the 3. There’s a strong possibility that dummy will be relatively short in declarer's second suit (clubs), and you expect declarer will try to use dummy's diamonds to trump his club losers. Both opponents have shown minimum values, so they may not have enough in high-card power alone to make their contract.

A trump lead can also be an effective attack in other situations where the weaker hand shows limited trump support. These include auctions where responder takes a preference after opener makes a two-suited bid (Flannery 2D, for example) or a three-suited bid (Roman 2D opener).  The same principle applies to two-suited overcalls:

        You        LHO        Partner     RHO
         1S         2NT *       DBL          3D             * (both minors) 
         Pass      Pass          DBL        All Pass

You don’t even need to see your hand to know that a trump lead must be right. Partner’s first double showed values (around 10+ high-card points) and his second double showed a desire to defend. Even if you don’t have a strong holding in the other minor, it’s likely that partner does, so you want to prevent the short-trump hand (declarer) from using his diamonds to trump dummy’s club losers.

The short-trump hand (usually dummy) is marked with shortness in another suit. You can almost see dummy's singleton club after this auction:

        West     East
         1D        1H 
         1S        1NT
         2H        4H

Opener's sequence here typically shows some extra values with 3-card heart support. Since opener pulled out of 1NT, he should have an unbalanced pattern -- probably 4-3-5-1. If you hold  109   865  QJ76  AK82 , resist the temptation to cash a high club, which may give declarer the tempo to eventually trump two club losers in dummy. You want to lead trumps as many times as possible, so start with the 5. If declarer wants to set up ruffs in dummy, he'll have to lead clubs himself, and you'll be in again for a second trump lead.

You have a clear advantage in overall power. This may be especially important if you've doubled the contract.

        You      LHO     Partner   RHO
         1NT      Pass       2C         2S 
         Pass      Pass      DBL      All Pass

After this auction, a trump lead is a good idea, even if you have an unattractive holding such as  Q84    QJ10   KQ102   AJ6

Although partner should have moderate spade length and strength, his double may be partially based on knowledge that your side owns significantly more than half the high-card strength. In this case, declarer's only prayer may be to score tricks with a few of dummy's trumps. Every trump lead you can make could cost him a trick.

You have a clear advantage in trump length and strength.

        RHO      You      LHO     Partner    
          1D         DBL     All Pass

Holding  QJ102   KJ76  8   AK63 , lead the 8. Partner rates to have better trumps than declarer, so start attacking declarer's suit. Partner may even be able to draw all of declarer's and dummy's trumps. This is one of the rare exceptions to the "rule" about never leading a singleton trump.

Passive trump leads

“When in doubt, lead a trump” is an old guideline that tends to be invoked too often. Ideally, you’ll have a good reason and a clear strategy when you choose a trump lead. Sometimes, however, the good reason will be that no other lead is safe.  

After a 1S-2S auction by your opponents, you have an unappealing choice of leads from  754   A1082   KJ32   J4 . There are dangerous honor holdings in all the unbid suits, so try the 4. You don't necessarily expect this to hurt declarer, but you hope it won't help. Since partner has only one or two trumps, probably the worst that can happen is that you’ll locate his doubleton queen -- and that's something declarer may have found for himself anyway.

A few caveats:  You should avoid leading a trump when:


   © Karen Walker

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