Thursday, August 31, 2006 4:01 AM

Hand Evaluation – Natural Leads

PITBULLS:

There are some situations in Bridge that come up so often that the defense is “Standard” . The opponents are interfering with a Michaels Q bid or an unusual NT which is doubled by your side. This situation calls for a standard defense of a trump lead. Another standard situation involves you “owning the hand” in a forcing pass sense , they have interfered with a fit but are doubled. In both these types of auctions, their only source of tricks is by ruffing as the hand is usually a misfit in the secondary suit with a lack of resources overall. In all these auctions , your lead should be a trump regardless of your hand. These are the only auctions where you should lead blind. A trump lead is better than cashing your tricks or even looking at the board first.

A Tormentee had ♠KQJxx ♥Kxxxxx ♦A ♣x , opened 1♥. The opponents overcalled 2NT , partner doubled showing the minors and most likely a misfit. Partner wants to double them at the 3 level. The opponents bid 3♦ but the Tormentee makes the correct bid of 3♠. You are vul and the opponents are not , so you would never leave the double in with a 6-5 in the majors . So you bid in front of partner who most likely wants to double. However , the 2NT bidder had no fear , leapt to 5♦ which your partner doubles. You lead your trump Ace , the board is ♠xx ♥Q ♦K10xxx ♣AQJxx . Since partner says your side has the majority of HCP’s with her double , she is marked with one or both the major suit Aces. You see 25 HCP between your hand and the dummy so there is only 15 HCP left with partner holding at least 10 HCP. You switch to a heart so partner wins the Ace and continues with the queen of trump. When the smoke clears , you pick up +1100.

I played this hand today when my partner got a little exuberant on the auction. The Tormentee did not lead a trump so I escaped for –500. I got to ruff clubs with my 3 small diamonds and singleton club. The Tormentee was forced to overruff clubs with her trump Ace which in effect was a loser on loser. In these auctions, a trump lead is a 2 trump for one exchange which is a key in defending cross ruffing situations.

Opening leads are a bidding skill. You listen to the bidding & make the opening lead that the bidding calls for , not the card combinations in your hand. The standard leads with honour sequences or 4^th best are for situations where there has been no bidding to guide you. All experts have a normal standard lead based on the bidding. When that lead is not made , bells should start ringing. Why is partner making that lead ? The answer is that the lead is a singleton. This is how experts identify singletons. Playing with weak partners who make random opening leads , it is difficult if not impossible to determine that the lead is a singleton. They should not be leading that suit based on the bidding but they regularly do. Playing with Perry , the opponents were in 3♦ & I led a heart a suit that dummy had bid & rebid. What a terrible lead on this auction ! I had a stiff so if partner feels that I normally do not make such ridiculous leads , it must be a singleton. Trust your partner’s Bridge ability L . A player in Calgary lamented that 7 times he led a singleton & not once did he get a ruff !!! This is because his partner has not tuned into the bidding & questioned why the expected correct lead based on the auction did not come. “Why did the dog not bark “ says Sherlock Holmes. He plays too often with players who do not know how to make opening leads in Bridge so he failed to realize that this “bad lead” was a singleton.

Normal leads are routine. The unbid suit , dummys 2^nd bid suit in NT , partner’s suit when she overcalled . Doubles of Q bid , KCB responses or failure to double these bids are the obvious leads. Partner not overcalling a major when she had a chance should negate that lead . The rank order of Q biding by the opponents quite often points to the correct opening lead as they have shown weakness in that suit. These natural leads are negated with a lead directing double. When you do not make the normal good leads , how are you read the lead directing double which negates the normal or natural lead ? How are you to read partner for a singleton when her leads are just “random” ? Very difficult , if not impossible. Down to demoting the game of Bridge as just a series of good or bad guesses.