Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - Monday, August 2, 2021- Opening Leads

 

Question: 

This board brings up the question of opening leads. Should W have lead high – A-K of S or shortness – singleton D.  With the singleton lead the hand made 7

Glenna:

  I could not receive a better question as I have always believed anyone can read a book and learn how to play a hand and 2 people can sit down and decide what to play, BUT the most magical part of bridge is DEFENSE. Defense is challenging, never ending and when successful, the most exciting.

  So to understand the concept of good opening leads, let’s look at what we know about the hand. Opener has 16 points, responder has 10 or more in order to bid game and the opening leader has 9+ so how many points can his partner hold???? Not many and therefore, the outcome of this hand is really depending on the opening lead.

  1st: The Q ♥️ is a potential trick and you hold the AK ♠️ and you now have a good chance to beat this contract. If partner has just one filling card somewhere this hand is going down. If you lead a singleton, how is partner (with few points) going to get in to give you a ruff. And you have a natural trump trick so ruffing a ♦️ does you no good!!! You are simply trading a ruff for a natural trick. You are setting up his ♦️ suit for him to discard losers!!! Look elsewhere. With the AK ♠️  I would lead those  cards. Partner might be able to ruff the 3rd ♠️ or declarer will have to ruff and maybe promote a trick for your partner.

  Also, you will beat all the people who lead a stiff if you cash your 2 ♠️ and wait for your ♥️ trick or for partner to have a little something.  Holding a game to the contract is better than giving them an overtrick every day of the week.

Hope this helps. If I made a list of opening leads in order of best results, leading a stiff would be the last one on the list. It works about 5 to 10% of the time, but people seem to think it’s great.

See You At The Tables,

Glenna