Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-24
BRIDGE TALKS
BIZ MRS. JOHN MuNcE. m

Coming now to the leads against a no
trump declaration when your mariner
has not bid, there are many conven-
tons to determine when you lead high
and when you lead low, or fourth best.
The leads against a no TRUMP when
your partner has not bid have to be
governed entirely by leaders hand. The
failure OF leaders partner to bid, usual
| ~ SHOWS that he has no particular suit
to establish, therefore it is better to
| open the lead with your longest suit.
The card to be led often depends on
whether the hand contains a re-entrv
| or not, as you not only want to estab-
iish your suit but to be able to get
| the lead back into your hand and take
| tricks with the small cards of that suit.
BY re-entry I mean high card in
your hand with which you might rea-
sonably expect to take a trick. The
following Is a short summary of these
leads:
In leading your own suit, If It con-
ta1ns three honors, such as ace, king,
queen and three small cards, lead the
ace, or what is called the top of touch
ing honors; with these two exceptions,
when holding a long suit headed by ace,
king, 10-spot and others, lead fourth
best; with ace, king, jack and others
and no re-entry, lead fourth best. If
the suit contains seven cards headed
by the ace, king, jack, lead the king,
because the suit is too strong to open
with the fourth best lead and does not
contain sufficient strength to lead the
ace. which would call for your part
ner's highest card of that suit. With
less than three honors lead fourth best,
unless holding sequences. which make
the leading of an honor the best lead.
With queen, jack and 9-spot, lead the
queen; with jack, 10-spot and 9-Spot.
or jack, 10-Spot and 8-spot, lead The
jack; with ace, 10-spot and 9-spot, or
king, 10-Spot and 9-spot, or queen,
10-spot and 9-spot, lead the 1o-spot.
There is one particular lead to re-
member, and that is that the lead Of an
ace against a no-trump declaration al
ways calls for the highest card of the
Do not lead an ace unless you want
your partner to put his highest card on
it regardless of its size.
When it comes to discussing the leads
against a suit declaration remember
that instead of trying to establish your
long suit OF your partners you want to
take as many tricks as possible with
your high cards and the high cards held
by your partner before the declarer has
Cle opportunity 10 get IN ana discard
any small cards of the suits In which
you are strong. Therefore, we will con-
slider the leads against a suit declara-
ton In the same way we did the no
trump; namely. first, the leads against
a suit declaration when your partner
has bid. and second, the leads against q
suit declaration when your partner has
not bid. It is well to remember that de-
clarer has shown strength in the suit
bid, and. generally speaking, it is better
to lead the highest card in your hand
Of the suit your partner has bid. When
holding ace, king. jack, or ace, king in
another suit, 1t Is often better to lead
the king, and take what seems to be a
sure trick, before opening up your part
ner's suit. This also gives you the OPP
portunity Of seeing the dummy before
leading your partners suit, which some
times Is very helpful.
AS to singleton lead, most authori-
ties agree that II the hand of the leader
contains a singleton and less than four
trumps, with no particular side strength,
it is often wise to lead the singleton, as
It may enable you to make several of
your little trumps, which otherwise
would have been of no value to you.
Sometimes it is the only lead which win
save game.