The card led provides an opportunity to pass information to partner.  The opponents are entitled to share in this information and you should reveal, when asked, what Leads you have 'agreed' or 'frequently use'.

Deciding which suit to play is often more important (and harder) than deciding which card to lead from a suit.

- Passive Lead (defence): A lead that is less likely to hurt the defending side, but is not expected to have a positive value.

- Active Lead (defence):  A lead that aims to quickly establish and cash tricks when declarer has a clear chance to dispose of losers if you do not take your tricks early.

Having determined the suit to lead most pairs employ a lead structure for the card to be played such as:

- Top of a sequence.  This can be A from AKxx, K from KQxx etc.  However, the choice of A or K may be affected by the signal required (see below).

- Inside honour sequence.  This is similar to the previous item but with a missing honour; e.g. Q from AQJx and J from KJTx.  With AKJT it is better to start with the A.  Again the choice may be affected by the signal required.

- Fourth Highest (low from an honour!).  The lead of the fourth highest should be from a reasonable suit as it is likely to sacrifice one of partners honours and may even save the declare a finesse.  Partner can use the 'Rule of Eleven' to work out how many cards the other 3 hands have that can beat the led card (and so can Declarer!).

- Second Highest.  Often used when playing an 'empty' suit, with 3 or more cards.  Play the second highest and then show count with the next card in the suit.  When the next card is higher it shows odd (MUD) and if its lower then its even (HiLo).

- Hi-Lo.  Leading a high card then playing low in the suit next time to show an even number.  This is used mostly when holding a doubleton but care is needed to avoid giving declarer an easy guess in the play.  Best used when partner is expected to win the first or second round and there is a high chance of a ruff with an otherwise losing trump card.

- Middle, Up, Down (MUD).  This is similar to the 'second highest' leads.

Recommended Reading:

Title:  Guide To Better Card Play

Author:  Ron Klinger, 1990, 2001

ISBN:  0-304-35769-3