Trump Leads in Bridge

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Finally it’s time to delve into trump leads.   Candidly, isn’t it true that deep down inside we love to make a trump lead?  For some reason there’s a thrill associated with beginning play in the opponent’s trump suit as if, “Okay, you want that suit to be trump… here you go, just try to trump this!”   Yet hopefully our more logical left brain cautions us against unilaterally following the urge. 

 In Mike Lawrence’s book “Opening Leads” he aptly pointed out, “…it’s right 20 percent of the time, it won’t matter 30 percent of the time, and leading trump will be wrong about 50 percent of the time.”  So when in doubt, we are certainly far better off NOT leading a trump.  Yet following some basic guidelines we can certainly do far better than always going one way or the other.

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Certainly the most obvious reason we might want to lead trump is to cut down on the declarer’s ruffing opportunity.   Here are some of the top scenarios where leading a trump might generate extra tricks for the defenders:

1. You have a longer trump suit than the declarer, particularly in a minor suit.
2. The declarer has side suit loser length and the dummy hand is short in the suit, allowing the declarer to ruff losers in an auction as:
   1H – 3H; 4H – AP
3. The opponents have no more than 4-4 (perhaps 4-3) in the trump suit and you hold 4 or more trumps.  It is quite common when a suit splits 4-4-4-1 that several hands will have a similar 4-4-4-1 shape or some other variation of shortness in the opponents’ hands.  Especially when your partner does not have many winners to give you ruffs, your persistent trump leads reduces the declarer’s ruffing power, making the hand appear to play in a Notrump contract.
   1H – 1S; 2D – AP
   1S – 1N; 2C – AP
   1S – 1N; 2H – 2S; AP
   1C – 1H; 1S – 2C; AP
   1C – 1D; 1S – 3S; 4S – AP
4. Both the declarer and the dummy have shortness in different side suits, allowing cross-ruffs between the hands.  The auction might be where opener has a 14-17 points (a 6 Losing Trick Count hand), making a side suit game try and responder accepts based on shortness in the side suit:
   1S – 2S; 3D – 4S; AP
5. Making an active/aggressive lead may finesse you or your partner, especially when the declarer has shown a strong hand in the bidding phase.
6. Based on the bidding and deducing your hand has the remaining honors (partner likely to be bust).  Leading away from an unguarded King or Queen will probably finesse your precious honors.
7. You hold “tight” top trump honors not useful for ruffing, as King-Queen-Jack, Queen-Jack-10, etc.  However leading a trump Ace-King doubleton will certainly not gather any honors from the opponents – let them lead the suit and knock out two of honors. Ditto with a “stiff” singleton Ace.
8. Leading another suit seems awful, such as having to otherwise lead away from unprotected Aces, suits headed by Jacks, etc.
9. Variations of the above include situations where opponents stole the auction with weakness, your partner passed your takeout double converting it to a penalty pass with a very long trump suit.  Typical prerequisites for a penalty pass:
   a. Little chance for game
   b. Honor strength (winning tricks) over opponent’s side suit
   c. Lacking a partnership fit
   d. Suit length in RHO’s suit.  Also, “slow tricks” are often advantageous over raw primary honor strength where your side could make a Notrump game or slam.
   e. Consideration to favorable or at least neutral vulnerability, negating the opponents’ scoring advantages should a game be possible by your side.
10. The opponents are playing in a grandslam suit contract.

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In our prior episode we progressed from the basics of opening leads against suit contracts to active and more aggressive leads in situations where we need to capture our tricks before the declarer magically makes them disappear!   In this lesson, we explore situations where we may be rewarded for making a more passive lead avoid giving away tricks deserved by our side.

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Passive Defense Situations when declarer is in a suit contract:

1. Partner gives us clear lead direction
   1. Partner opened/overcalled a major suit (5+)
   2. Partner doubled the opponent’s artificial bid (Stayman, Transfer, cuebid)
2. Trump lead reduces opponents ruffing ability
3. Safe sequence lead is best (Ace from Ace-King, top of sequence, etc.)
4. Opponents have minimal strength (partscore)
5. Partner not likely to hold a helpful honor (bust)
6. Declarer (Right Hand Opponent) bid strongly but not in a slam suit contract
   1. Opens 1 Notrump (15-17), rebids 2 Notrump (18-19), opens 2 NT (20-21)
   2. Opener reverses as:  1C – 1H; 2D… (17+ points)
   3. Opener strong jump shift as:  1D – 1H; 3C… (19-21 points)

As always, thoughtful defenders should attentively listen to the auction.  Even aside from the bidding, shrewd defenders monitor the opponents’ mannerisms, gestures and the like.   And when it comes to assessing the bidding and play of the hand against a suit contract, here is our short list of extras to consider when making leads:

1. count, Count, COUNT and Think 
2. Count points
3. Count Distribution
4. Count Tricks (auction level)

5. Integrate auction inferences into partnership plan

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