CONVENTIONAL LEADS AND PLAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 19

CONVENTIONAL LEADS AND PLAYS

In defending a contract, every card that is played, whether in leading, following suit, or discarding, conveys some' signal to the partner regarding the closed hand. ' Signals may be divided into three categories—-to show honours, to show long suits of four or more cards, and to show short suits.of three and fewer cards. These signals can be given in four different ways: By means of leads, when discarding, when following suit, and when winning a trick. HONOUR LEADS. Since it is not safe to make a lead, and particularly a blind lead, of an honour; except from a sequence of not less than three cards, the lead of ati honour may be interpreted by the partner as showing a leadable sequence in the player's ;hand.- A: leadable sequence consists of — (a) A three-card sequence headed by an honour, as K.Q.J'., Q.J.10, or J. 10.9. (b) Two touching honours with a third card one step lower, as K.Q.10, Q.J.9, or J. 10.8. When leading a suit headed by a leadable sequence, the top of the sequence must be led, regardless of the length of the suit.' When the suit is not headed by a sequence, a low card is led, usually the fourth highest. " ; Combinations such as K.J.10.9, A.10.9.7, X.10.9.5, Q. 10.9.4 are known as intermediate or middle sequences, the sequence being headed by an honour one step below the highest honour held in the suit. With such combinations the highest card of the suit is disregarded and the top of the sequence is led; but here the rule of leadable sequences varies. With three . ranking cards in a four-card suit, as X.10.9.x. or Q.10.9.X., the proper lead is the ten, although the fourth card is not in sequence. EXAMPLES. 6.3. X. A.J.10.5.5. W. E. | - 7.4.3. S. K.Q.9. In this example, the third card of the middle sequence is within one step of the1 sequence. The lead of the Jack forces out one of South"s honours, and if East gets a lead Souths remaining ' honour is played through, and West makes the rest of the tricks in the suit. Had the fourth highest, the eight, been led, South must have made two tricks. Further, if North held the Queen and East the King, the Queen would be trapped on the first trick. K.J.5. | ; Q. 10.9.4. . I W. E. | 7.2. •! i ' A.5.6.3. If the four is led by West, South wins the first trick with th e eight and finesses through West's Queen,1 thus winning all four tricks. The lead of the ten assures West of a trick.

A lead of any honour in an unbid suit denotes the next lower honour in that suit, and at the same time denies the next higher honour. ■ The one exception occurs in the case qf A.K. accompanied by small- cards, when the lead is the King, to' shol^ that the Ace is behind it. ':

The lead of an Ace, therefore,'does not show a sequence but denies one. When a.player leads an Ace, his .partner assumes that his next highest card in the suit is one that is lower than the King. There is one exception; when the leader has A.K. only ;ami is playing against a trump bid. He plays the Ace and follows immediately with the King, a signal to his part» ncr .that he can ruff the third round.'■

Against no-trump bids the rule pt leadable sequences is closely followed, and the fourth h.^hest is led even from suits headed by A.K. Against trumiJ bids it is unsafe to lead low from, A.K. and risk having an honour trick ruffed later. Except in the case of ?a strategical. underlead (when a small card is led from A.x.x.) it is not safe to lead low from an Ace. against'a trump bid, or low from a K.Q. suit. At no-trumps, the lead of an, Ac M? purely conventional, showing ..a long and powerful suit and asking partner to unblock (and at the same time to give information) by playing his highest card of the suit, led, on the Ace.. LEADS TO SHOW LONG SUITS/ From a suit containing, four cards or more, with no leadable sequence, the proper lead is the fourth highest, except in the case of a very long suit, when the card to lead must be determilled by the honour-trick strength in the suit/and the! entry - cards :in the hand. • , THE ELEVEN RULE. The Eleven, Rule 'operates 'only; in conjunction with the.leadof the fourth highest card of a suit;-.,and is-:applied as follows:— ■ ' . ' ' ■:, ' When the card led is the leader's fourth highest of that suit, rubtract the pip value of the card led from eleven. The result is the number of cards higher than the card led, held by the other three players.

The explanation of this rule is interesting. The cards of any suit ara a series of numbers.', but since the lowest number is two and not one (the Ace being high at-bridge) the series runs not from one to thirteen, but from two to fourteen. Deduct any number from fourteen and the difference will be the total number of higher cards in the series. Three of these higher cards are held by the leader of the fourth best, of a. suit, so that the number to be subtracted from is reduced to eleven.

The Eleven Rule is of particular value to the leader's partner, at times enabling him to determine how manyhigh cards of the suit led are held by the declarer, and.guiding him in playing to the . trick.;. Also, the Eleven Rule will often tell the leader's partner whether the card led shows a long suit or is the top of a short suit.

The subject of conventional leads and plays will be continued next week. '