Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-30
AUCTION BRIDGE LESSONS.
BY R. F. FOSTER,
Author of "Foster's Complete Bridge"
No. 10.

opening leads at auction which
should be easily remembered.
If neither you nor partner has named
any suit. lead just as you would at
straight bridge.
II your partner has declared suit
You hold Of his suit, regardless Of
number. especially against a no.
trumper because it is the high cards
he wants to know about more than the
number you hold.
If you have declared g. suit and your
partner has not, 1t Is fair assumption
that he is willing to have you lead
the suit you have named. and In many
cases he bases his game on the as
sumption that you will lead your suit.
overcal1 when he could do so, just to
compel his partner to lead a certain
suit.
When either adversary goes no.
tricks in any SUIT it is almost a GER
tainty that he has the suit stopped
unless the score is desperate. II the
no-trumper Is on your left. you can
not help yourself and it is better to
clear your suit at once, but il he is
lead some other suit In the hope that
your partner can come through the
stopper and kill 1t. II your partner
has named no suit, the best lead is a
suit that you can stop even after
leading from It. such as four to an
honor or queen, jack and another.
When your partner has named a
suit. you should lead 1t in preference
to your own when opposed to a no.
trumper, because If the declarer is on
stopped. and he will kill both suits If
you lead yours up to him. and he
| lies over your partner. But IL you
lead your partners suit and clear it
for him. you still hold your own over
| the declarer. so that one Of his stop
pers Is worthless.
When you have an ace-king suit, al
ways lead the king Of it to get a look
at dummy before leading your part
ners suit, il he has named one. This
are doing and shows your partner a
| sure re-entry, in case he wants to nut
you in the lead at any time.
1t is against the rules to ask about
any declaration but the winning one
SO that a player is not allowed to ask
during the play of the hand. "Didn't
you bid clubs?' or who was 1t that
bid diamonds?" These details must be
| carried in the memory. and they are
sometimes very important when 1t
| lead. ] recently saw this hand:
| The dealer, s, bid two clubs, his part
ner, n, two diamonds and e went two
| no-trumps. holding five spades to the
ace, King, queen. ace ana TWO small
hearts; queen. jack Of clubs: queen and
two small diamonds. All that dummy
| had Of Importance was four hearts to
the Jack and three clubs to the ten.
Inc opening lead was the deuce of
| diamonds. showing no more. N. having
re-entry. let the first trick go, and e
ran off Ave spades. On the last of these
n discarded one Of his diamonds, show
| ing a club to lead to his partner and
the guarded king Of hearts for re-
entry. Dummy having three small
spades and diamonds, Ms hand could be
counted. had already discarded two
clubs, and remembering his bid in clubs
and his diamond lead. E led the queen
Of clubs. s won it, made his ace Of
clubs and then played a Deschapelles
coup with the queen Of hearts, which E
allowed to win. The next heart E won
with the ace. led a small heart to
dummy's jack, and dummy made two
heart tricks and the ten of clubs. four
by cards. shutting out the whole dia-
mond suit Of six cards to four honors.
All the usual bridge rules for covering
second hand. leading from the weak to
the strong and flnessing. apply equally to
auction, but there Is no such thing as
the heart convention. and 1t is usually