SIGNALLING WITH SMALL CARDS

QUIZ 9-5-24

HELD stands for High Encourage,  Low Discourage.  When defending, if partner leads from a suit and you want your partner to lead it again, play High.  To discourage, play Low.  This applies to most situations where it makes sense to encourage partner to continue.  But it  obviously does not apply  if you know partner can't continue or when there is a good reason why it would be clear to partner that you could not want the suit continued.  Then signals have a different meaning as we shall discuss later on.

QUIZ 16-5-24 What does HELO stand for?

RULES OF THUMB FOR CARD PLAY

DISCUSSION 18-4-24
a)  if you are leading an Honour from a sequence of Honours, lead the top one.  But if you are following suit, play the bottom Honour from a sequence of Honours. "Lead from the Top, Follow from the Bottom"    Important exception: With AK bare in a suit contract, lead K first as a signal to show what you have b) "Cover an Honour with an Honour"  Very often this promotes a card in partner's hand  e.g.  dummy plays a Q, you cover with K, declarer covers that with A, and  your partner's J is promoted to top card (if he has it of course!).     Important exception:  If you know your opponent is leading from a sequence of Honours, wait for the last one before covering.    (But don't wait if there is a risk you will be trumped!)
c)  On the assumption that your opponents follow rule b) above it follows that: "If he doesn't cover he hasn't got it"

DISCUSSION  25/4/24    "Eight Ever, Nine Never"   Suppose you hold the AK and J in a suit, but not the Q.  Do you try to catch the Q by finessing or by just leading out A and K?  Answer:  if you have eight cards in the suit, Finesse.  If you have nine, go for the Drop..  Exceptions:  if you have reason to guess from the bidding which side of your A and/or King the Queen lies, it may be better to finesse even with nine cards (one of the opposition hands may have shown much more strength in the bidding or great length in another suit).

DISCUSSION 2/5/24  "Honours from the Short Hand First" if you, as declarer, hold honours both in a certain suit  and also in the same suit in dummy, you should normally lead with a low card towards the honour in the hand which has the shorter length in that suit.  So, with Kxxx in dummy for example, and with QJx in hand, you should lead a small card from dummy towards the QJ in hand.  There are, however, very many exceptions.  But, if you can't work out what might be better, try following this Rule!

CHOICE OF CARD for Opening Lead

If you know which SUIT you should lead, then which CARD do you choose from it?
The answers are accumulated here so this provides a complete guide to the Standard Lead system.
Honour cards will sometimes be denoted by H  (A,K,Q,J and 10 will count as an Honour)
Ten will be denoted by T.  Other cards from 2 to 9 will sometimes be denoted by x. An Honour sequence means two or more adjacent honours,  e.g. KQ, but not KJ
Standard Leads apply to the opening lead but are usually used through the hand until tactical reasons demand a different card.
There are some differences depending whether the contract is a Suit contract or No Trumps.

From a Two Card suit, always lead the Top card, whether or not it is an honour, against both a Suit and a no Trump contract.. (exception  AK bare in a suit contract -  lead K first to show that you can trump the third round of the suit).

From a Three Card suit with two Honours in sequence  (e.g. QJ5) lead the top Honour  (If, for example, from QJ5 you lead the Q, Partner will expect you have the J as well, but he will know you have NOT got the King,  Of course the Q might be a singleton or from a pair, so partner is not sure about the Jack as well)

From a Three Card suit with one Honour, lead the third card  (e.g.  J76, lead 6)

From a Three Card suit with no Honours, lead the Middle card, and follow it with the Top card when next that suit is played (e.g. from 983, lead 8, follow up with 9). This is known as MUD (Middle, Up, Down)

From and Three Card suit and one Honour (or more but not in a sequence) lead the lowest card (eg Q64 lead the 4 or from KJ3 lead the 3)  This holds against all contracts, except against a Suit Contract you should almost never under lead the Ace (choose another suit if possible, or lead the Ace)

From a Three Card suit with no Honours lead the middle card and play the top card when next that suit is used (eg 874 lead the 7 and then lead or play the 8).  This is known as a MUD holding, standing for Middle Up Down.  Contrast it with a two card suit, when you play a higher card and then lower - with three the second card played is higher than the first so partner knows you started with a three card suit.  This holds against all contracts.

From a Four (or more) Card suit with a single Honour you lead the 4th highest card 

From a Four (or more) Card suit with Two (or more) Honours not in Sequence, again lead the 4th highest card

From a Four (or more) Card suit with just Two Honours in Sequence, lead the top Honour in a suit contract, 4th highest card in No Trumps

From a Four (or more) Card suit with Three Honours in Sequence, always lead the top Honour,  and with a Broken Sequence, again the Top Honour  (a Broken Sequence has a gap between the 2nd and 3rd Honour  eg KQTx), but with an Interior Sequence lead the top of the actual sequence (e.g from KJT lead the J) in both suit and NT contracts.     (An Interior Sequence has three Honours but the gap falls between the top Honour and the actual sequence below it)

From a Four (or more) Card suit with NO Honours lead the 2nd highest card and when next you play the suit the 3rd highest  (this shows it is not a MUD 3 card suit, but it looks like a two card suit - partner will usually know which from the bidding and the other cards visible to him)

Final Note:   T9 counts as an Honour Sequence, because the 9 is equal to the T when held in the same hand: the 9 becomes an Honorary Honour!

CHOICE OF SUIT for an Opening Lead   If you know the Suit you want to lead, you will find the Standard Lead guidance for the choice of the card above.  But what is the best choice of suit  for an Opening Lead against a Suit Contract?   The best choice nearly always (if you have it!) is A from AKx(x..) or K from AK bare.  This will be a safe lead (unless declarer has a void) and lets you see dummy and lets Partner signal in response.  So what is the next best lead if you don't have an AK?   If partner has doubled a conventional bid (e.g 2C Stayman), then  Partner's double is Lead Directing.  Lead that suit in all contracts, Suit and No Trump.  (A 'natural' bid is a bid of a suit you are willing to play in -  other bids are 'conventional'  i.e. based on a convention such as Stayman or Transfers where you bid a suit you do not want to play in)

The next best choice of lead after those above is likely to be between leading a Singleton or Partner's suit (if he has bid) . A singleton lead is only likely to be good if there is a good chance of partner winning the trick and returning the lead.  Also, there is not much point in using a trump card in this way, if it weakens your holding of trumps and you take one fewer trick when they are led out later -  you may end with the same number of trump tricks but you have missed the chance to open up partner's suit.   But otherwise, if you lead a singleton, partner wins the trick, returns the lead, and you trump it, this can be the best start to the hand. 

If you have none of the above options (Partner has not bid), then against a suit contract you should very often bid an unbid suit (i.e. a suit the other side has not bid), in the hope that partner has good cards in it.  If you know from the bidding that partner is very weak it may be time to consider a MUD lead or a Trump lead since such leads do not usually give much away.   Against a No Trump contract the best lead is very often the Fourth card in your longest and strongest suit (but usually not if the other side have made a natural bid in this suit.

if you decide to bid one of the unbid suits, which do you choose?  If there is nothing in the bidding to guide you, then you may need to choose the suit with 'the best shape'.  Against No Trump contracts, fourth of your longest and strongest (Honour headed) suit is usually good (but not if the other side have bid it).  In all contracts one very safe shape that is unlikely to give anything away is to lead the top of a three Honour sequence  e.g. QJT(x..).  Against suit contracts top of a two Honour sequence is possible (but K from KQx gives up much chance of two tricks in the suit).  In suit contracts, suits headed by one Honour are best avoided unless Partner is likely to be quite strong.  Almost never 'under-lead' an Ace and do not lead an Ace unless you have the King as well.  Top of a pair of small cards occasionally wins you a ruff on the third round.   If nothing looks very attractive, consider a passive lead (i..e one that expects to hand the lead over to declarer or dummy}.  A passive lead would be MUD (middle of 3 small cards}, or 2nd of 4 smalls, or a Trump.  A trump lead is also very good if the bidding suggests declarer will be depending upon ruffs in dummy (or in whichever hand has the shorter trump suit).  Passive leads are often recommended against No Trump contracts as the wrong lead can give away tricks:  instead wait for declarer to run into problems.  Whatever suit you choose normally follow the guidance in the section above for the choice of card in that suit (except when leading Trumps usually lead the lowest).  Finally, the standard lead against a Grand Slam contract is also a trump (assuming you think the opposition have bid soundly!)