{"id":25,"date":"2009-01-19T11:01:46","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T19:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/2009\/01\/19\/newcomer-novice-2-notrump-leads\/"},"modified":"2009-01-19T11:01:46","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T19:01:46","slug":"newcomer-novice-2-notrump-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"Newcomer &amp; Novice #2:  Notrump Leads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/Services\/eMagazine_Archive\/eMag_NN_2_0206.htm\">READ THE NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the last few months, we featured two of declarer\u2019s favorite play strategies \u2013 the finesse and the promotion play. This month in our first of a two part article, we will explore considerations for the defender to make the best lead when opponents are playing a Notrump contract. There\u2019s more to this game beyond leading your fourth-best card: find out why.<\/p>\n<p>With our focus on leads this month, let\u2019s review the Laws when something goes awry on the opening lead.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone loves to open a hand for bidding. Last month we learned how the \u201cRule of 15\u201d gives us another hand evaluation criterion when partner is a passed hand. Now let\u2019s explore the \u201cRule of 20\u201d &#8211; a third hand evaluation method, useful even when partner hasn\u2019t bid.<\/p>\n<p>My, partner, you have great shape \u2013 referring to your hand distribution, of course! Some hands have cute colloquial names associated with them to describe the shape: Swan, Rattlesnake, Two\/Three Suiter, Pancake, (Ugly) Duckling, Freak, and Stiff. Regardless of how you play the cards, use these clich\u00e9s and you\u2019ll sound like you really know your stuff after you have finished this month&#8217;s newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>READ THE NEWSLETTER For the last few months, we featured two of declarer\u2019s favorite play strategies \u2013 the finesse and the promotion play. This month in our first of a two part article, we will explore considerations for the defender to make the best lead when opponents are playing a Notrump contract. There\u2019s more to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}