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Opening Lead chart
| Ref | Prio rity |
Certain cards are highlighted in red or green in the download version to indicate standard or Rusinow leads | |||
| No Trumps - choice of SUIT | E.g. | lead | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | A suit that you might be able to establish, usually longest (and ideally strongest), and unbid by opponents. When choosing this or the next option, remember the goal ! Establish your team's best suit. | |||
| 2 | 2 | Your partner's long / strong suit (unbid by opponents). | |||
| 3 | 3 | Suit unbid by opposition. | |||
| 4 | 4 | If desperate. . ..a suit bid by LHO (your opponents will prefer to play 4th player high, not second player). | |||
| No Trumps - choice of CARD | |||||
| 11 | 1 | Top of sequence, promising 3 honours. This is the best type of NT defence. K promises Q and one more honour, not A. (In suits, 2 touching honours is enough, see 48). | KQJ84 | K | |
| 12 | 1 | ..similar. Q promises J and one more honour, not K could be A. | QJT5 | Q | |
| 13 | 1 | ..similar. Q promises J + one more honour, and denies K. Note: leading away from A allowed here!! | AQJ7 | Q | |
| 14 | 1 | ..similar. J promises 10 + one more honour (denies Q). | KJTxx | J | |
| 15 | ..similar. You can under-lead an Ace when trying to establish your suit in NT. Note: although it can still make RHO (Declarer)'s King good, if he has it. | AQJ7 | Q | ||
| 16 | 2 | 4th highest, promising exactly 1 or 2 honours. Allows partner to use rule of 11. Two honours OK. | QJ853 | 5 | |
| 17 | 3 | 4th highest, promising exactly 1 or 2 honours. Allows partner to use rule of 11. One honour not great. | Q7432 | 3 | |
| 18 | High-ish, denying any honours. | 98532 | 8 | ||
| 42 | Take your winners early when defending Slam contracts. | A74 | A | ||
| 43 | Take your winners early, if you might never get the lead again. | ||||
| 44 | My A, promising the K, denying AK doubleton, and hoping you've got Qxx(x), so you can win the 3rd round. Play higher x to encourage leader to continue. (AKQ a little rare in NT, & no ruffing options, see 44). | AKx(xx) | A | ||
| Suit contract - choice of SUIT | |||||
| 21 | 1 | Your partner's suit (unless you have a good reason not to). Only lead an honour if top of 2. | |||
| 22 | 2 | A suit you know your partner is likely to be void in. | |||
| 23 | 2 | Play trumps if (1) opposition need to ruff, (2) as low risk lead, (3) if you both bid another suit or if (4) they overstretched themselves in bidding. (But don't if you don't have either only one, or Qxx, see 36). | |||
| 24 | 2 | A trump if dummy plans to ruff. It removes their supply of tricks to be won in the short hand. | |||
| 25 | 2 | A trump if all the other suits are risky. It gives you a chance to assess the dummy. | |||
| 26 | 2 | A trump against a sacrifice. They've spoiled your contract, and are probably hoping to limit the damage by cross-ruffing, so try wasting the trumps. | |||
| 27 | 2 | A trump when you and partner both bid the same suit. If you hold the Ace, can you be sure he has the King? Leading a trump might be safer. | |||
| 28 | 3 | A trump if declarers have stretched themselves for game, & again are likely to resort to ruffing. | |||
| 29 | 2 | With a probable long suit in dummy, lead one of the other 2 aggressively (before they get a chance to slough your short suit winners). | |||
| 30 | 2 | Lead through beatable strength. I.e. partner might be sitting on top of their strength. | |||
| 31 | 3 | Force declarer to trump in hand when known to be void. Trumping in the long hand gains no extras. | |||
| 32 | 3 | An unbid suit. It's a sign of weakness. | |||
| 33 | 3 | A suit that you might be able to establish, allowing for shortages. No point doing it if they'll trump as soon as you've done it. | |||
| 34 | 3 | Singleton, provided you have some small trumps which you don't think will otherwise win. | x | x | |
| 35 | 4 | Don't under-lead an Ace, when playing suits. You'll set up their King instead of killing it later. | |||
| 36 | 4 | Trump lead: Don't lead trumps with only 1, or Qxx. If you have only one, partner often has 4. | x, Qxx | other suit |
|
| 37 | 4 | Don't lead a minimally protected suit. Sometimes a Qx will win 50% of the time if they play a finesse. | |||
| 4 | 4 | If desperate. . ..a suit bid by LHO (your opponents will prefer to play 4th player high, not second player). | |||
| 38 | 4 | Another suit, when all the others have problems. | |||
| Suit contract - choice of CARD | |||||
| 41 | Take your winners early, if opposition are likely to be short. | ||||
| 42 | Take your winners early when defending Slam contracts. | ||||
| 43 | Take your winners early, if you might never get the lead again. | ||||
| 44 | My A, promising the K, denying AK doubleton, and hoping you've got Qxx(x), or xx, so you can either win or ruff the 3rd round. Co-defender play your higher x to encourage another lead. | AKx(xx) | A | ||
| 45 | My K, promising Q, hoping you've got A, or Jxxx(x), or xxx, so you can win or ruff the 4th round. Partner please play your higher x to encourage. (But ambiguous with AK, unless you use the Rusinow convention). | KQx(xx) | K | ||
| 46 | King then Ace, promising AK doubleton. (But ambiguous with KQx, see 48, unless you use the Rusinow convention). | AK | K | ||
| 47 | My Q denies K, promises J, maybe partner you have the 10, or better still K/A, so we can at least win the 3rd round. Tell me, with a (legal) encouraging signal. | QJx(xx) | Q | ||
| 48 | Top of touching honours, promising at least 2 honours. (In NT, 3 honours promised, see 11). The Rusinow convention resolves ambiguity with AK, see 46, by requiring the lower of touching honours, and is now considered standard by some. | KQ(xxx) | K | ||
| 49 | Lower of single or non-touching honours. Unless you use the Journalist convention - and don't lead this suit. | KJx | J | ||
| 50 | My J, promising either the 10 or the King / better. (The Journalist convention resolves the ambiguity). | J10x(xx) | J | ||
| 51 | Top of nothing, denying any good cards. Beware, 9 lead implies singleton, see 55, 56. | 9843 | 8 | ||
| 52 | Top of doubleton, ONLY IF knowing that you have a high chance of winning these two, and then leading a 3rd time. | xx | high | ||
| 53 | Don't lead a singleton A, (it promises the K). Partner will lead back to you later, expecting your King. | lone Ace | no | ||
| 54 | Trump lead: lowest. (Leading trumps is good with 2-4 low ones). Ax, Axx, Kxx, xxxx, xxx, xx | low | |||
| 55 | MUD. Middle-Up-Down. With nothing in the suit, play the middle card first. Can't play a lower one next, or your partner will think you had only 2. (So 9 implies possible singleton, see 56). | 975 | 7 | ||
| 56 | Lowest of 3 with single honour. Since 10 is an honour, don't lead 9 as "MUD" (55), or "top of nothing" (51). | K85 | 5 | ||
| 57 | 4th highest, promising 1 or 2 honours. Can't use rule of 11 in suit contract, as the lead is ambiguous. | K9432 | 3 | ||
