Immediately after the dummy’s hand has been faced, and before you have told the dummy which card to play on the opening lead, you should analyse the lead and decide what reason your opponent had for making that lead.
An opening lead in a suit you have bid or in a suit where your partnership has both length and strength indicates that the suit is dividing unevenly. If you are playing in a trump contract beware of the singleton lead! If you think the lead is a singleton then you can place the location of your opponents’ honour strength in the suit.
Example:
| Declarer ♦972 | Dummy ♦AQJ1065 |
You are west and the declarer in 4♥. North leads ♦8. Who has the ♦K?
Your partnership has nine of the thirteen diamonds. North is not leading a diamond from a long suit so looks to be leading a singleton or doubleton diamond. South has ♦K. So win ♦A, draw trumps then lead a diamond for south to win ♦K. If you finesse ♦Q at the first trick, south can win ♦K and lead a second diamond for north to trump. You should draw trumps before letting south win ♦K.
If an opponent leads an honour without holding a sequence that player will often have led a singleton.
Example:
| Declarer ♦K972 | Dummy ♦10865 |
You are west and the declarer in 4♥. North leads ♦J. South wins ♦A and leads back ♦3. Should you play ♦K?
North’s lead looks like a singleton as with♦Q and♦J north would have led ♦Q. If you play ♦K, north will trump so play a low diamond on south’s ♦3. North will then use a trump on one of your losing diamonds. You can win ♦K later.
After a competitive auction it is unusual for a player to not lead one of the suits bid by that player’s partnership. If the contract is in a trump suit and the player on lead does not lead the suit that player’s partner has bid, but instead leads a suit you have bid, then the lead will often be a singleton.
Example:
| Declarer ♦Q972 | Dummy ♦A1065 |
You are west and the declarer in 4♥ after south has opened the bidding 1♠. North leads ♦8. Who has ♦K?
North would usually lead the suit south has bid (spades), so north is likely to have led a singleton diamond. Win ♦A at the first trick, draw trumps then lead a diamond for south to win ♦K. If you had played low at the first trick, south would win ♦K and lead a second diamond for north to trump. North would then play a spade to south who could lead a third diamond for north to trump.You would lose the first four tricks!
© 2022 John Roberts