| Aces and Kings - Robin's notes on Defence |
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Leads:
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In recent times, the ‘law’ for leading an Ace or a King from a holding of AKxxxx, say, or AKxx is to lead the Ace, if you want Partner to show attitude, or the King if you want partner to show Count. Ace for ‘Attitude’, and King for Count. This works well. So; you have ♠AK7654 or ♠AK54 and you are defending a trump or no trump contract by the opposition,
- No Trump contract, you will lead either the Ace or King, or more likely to retain communications, the 6 (4th. highest), from AK7654. If you decide to lead from AK7654, do you want Attitude or Count ? depends what you find in dummy, but of course it is too late then, so whether you have an outside entry or not, lead the 6 to retain communications with partner. (Exception, if they have shown great strength, might be best to cash Ace and King, keeping it to 11 tricks!) From AK54 against No Trumps, you will normally try to avoid this lead. Why give a trick to the Queen ?
- Suit contract, this is where Ace for attitude and King for count is important. With AK7654, you would like to know whether Partner has a doubleton for a ruff, maybe. So you would lead the King. Partner will show Count, i.e. HiLo if a doubleton, and Lowest from 3 (or of course a singleton); with AK54, you would like to know Partner’s attitude to your opening lead of the Ace (attitude), i.e. have they got Q74, say; they will play the 7 (Hi for like, sorry Andrew). If you had say, the 642, then you would play the 2. (low for hate! Sincere apologies to Andy Robson).
- Lets now go forward to your play when Partner or opposition lead a suit.
- Lets say, the opposition contract is in a suit, they are playing it. Partner leads a low card in an outside suit. You hold AK74. You must play the King. This identifies that you may hold the Ace. If you carelessly play the Ace on Partner’s (or opposition’s) lead, you are denying the King. This is the same at all times. Say Partner or opposition lead a suit, and you are due to play a high card, always play the 9 from J109 - If you play the Jack, you are denying the 10. If you have KQxx always play the Queen. Any card in a sequence, then always play the lowest from the sequence, if you are forcing out an honour from Declarer. It is called ‘Communicating with Partner, and helping the defence’. However, note,if you are on lead with a sequence, you always lead top of a sequence. Just something that we have to learn. You lead top of a sequence (especially honour cards,) to show Partner that you have the card below it in sequence. I know, different rules for the similar situation. I never said that bridge is an easy game.
- Lets say, that Partner (suit) contract, leads an outside suit. You hold AK in that suit – a doubleton. Always play the Ace followed by the King, and then switch to another suit; Partners should realise that you have no more cards in that suit. Conventionally with AK doubleton, always play the Ace then the King!
- McKenny at trick 1. Partner leads a suit, and dummy has a singleton. You hold the Ace and King (and Partner possibly realises that you have the Ace and the King (bit deep this one, forget asap), if you play the Ace, there is a strong likelihood that you want a higher suit returned – let us say you switch to a trump at trick 2. If you play the King, then maybe you want a lower suit returned. I know, I know, when does this ever come up. Answer, more likely than you think!
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| Defence Example W leading to 4S Contract, E bid Hearts |
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The contract is 4♠ by South. You are on lead, and your Partner has bid Hearts
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| Show Answer |
The contract is 4 ♠ by South. You are on lead, and your Partner has bid Hearts. So you lead a MUD (Middle Up Down) 6 of hearts. Partner can win King (conventional see above), or the Ace. He has no interest in clubs; so therefore he wins the Ace of hearts (showing more interest in diamonds than clubs. He is likely to have the Ace and King of hearts) He switches, correctly to a trump. Declarer wins and immediately plays The Jack of clubs. You decide to duck this, in case . Partner has a singleton King (how many times have we crashed the Ace and the King together). Declarer plays another top trump, then plays the King of clubs, which you win. Your Partner has already shown more interest in diamonds than clubs, so you switch to the King of diamonds (you are in Control, so you ensure the 2 diamond tricks, as opposed to playing a diamond to the Ace, where it is possible that Partner might try to cash a heart, and get it wrong. = 1 off.
You might say this is an easy defence! How many easy defences have we all got wrong !!
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| Webmaster's experiment! |
Show Detail | How should this hand be bid! Just using this hand, board 6, from Monday 15th February as a temporary experiment by the webmaster to learn how to make best use of the facilities now available through the website. The hand has nothing to do with Robin's lesson notes above it is purely an experiment, this location looked a good place to catch the eye of the readers who might be interested..
On the day the EW contracts ranged from 2♦, 3♦, 3NT to 5♦! Best EW score 660 was from 3NT making 11. Best number of tricks made was 12 but unfortunately contract just 2♦! Best NS play got 5♦ down one.
The webmaster would appreciate feedback, would readers like a hand displayed from time to time. Where the results have fluctuated widely the webmaster can make a selection or Robin can pick a hand up for a lesson? Views on the use of this feature for the website on a postcard to Robin or Ann.
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| A second experiment by Webmaster |
Show Detail | This is a hand from your magazine, the question that went with it was how would you bid these hands. You will of course have to look up the answer in your February 21 magazine. This experiment here is simply to see the options available to Robin when he is devising lessons. A by product of this example may be that readers check their magazine from cover to cover to find the hand! Don't be tempted to press "show all hands" button, North and South cards not entered.
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