This Week in Bridge
(401) Opening Leads: Interpreting Partner’s Lead
© AiB Robert S. Todd
Levels: 4 of 10 (1 of 6) robert@advinbridge.com
General
Most partnerships agree to use 4th best leads, usually from a suit headed by an honor, as their default opening lead agreement. But that is not the only type of lead that partner can make. As the 3rd player (the partner of the opening leader) one of the skills we need to develop is to learn to interpret partner’s opening lead. We need to be able to visualize certain honor holdings from partner (or lack of honor holdings) as well as be able to understand when partner has led top (or nearly top) of a bad holding. Let’s look at the different options we need to consider.
Honor Leads -- Touching Honors
One common opening lead other than 4th best is top of touching honors or from an honor sequence of even more touching honors. If partner leads a high card (an honor - A, K, Q, J, or T), then they have at least one more honor.
Versus a suit contract they have at least one other touching honor and they usually do not have the Ace of the suit led unless that was the lead.
These are the Standard Leads vs. Suits:
Ace Lead from
AK+
King Lead from
KQ+
AK (doubleton)
Queen Lead from
QJ+
Jack Lead from
JT+
KJT+ (top of interior sequence)
Ten Lead from
T9+
QT9+ (top of interior sequence)
KT9+ (top of interior sequence)
Versus a notrump contract, if partner leads an honor then they have three touching or nearly touching honors. In this case, they could have underled the Ace.
These are the Standard Leads vs. Notrump:
Ace Lead from
AKQ+
AKJT+ (power lead, asking for the unblock of the Q, otherwise count)
King Lead from
AKJx+
KQJ+
KQT+
Queen Lead from
AQJ+
AQT+
KQT9+ (power lead, asking for the unblock of the J, otherwise count)
QJT+
Jack Lead from
AJT+ (top of interior sequence)
KJT+ (top of interior sequence)
JT9+
JT8+
Ten Lead From
AT9+ (top of interior sequence)
KT9+ (top of interior sequence)
QT9+ (top of interior sequence)
T98+
“Top of Nothing” Leads
Another option for partner’s lead (instead of 4th best) is that it is a “Top of Nothing” lead. This is an example of an attitude-oriented lead (low from interest/honor; high from no interest/no honor). Top of nothing is a good way for the opening leader to communicate that they do not have an honor. But sometimes partner will not want to waste their highest card at trick 1 and in that case, they will lead their 2nd best card (making it appear like a top of nothing lead).
Examples
9863 – Lead the 9
T873 – Lead the 8.
In either case (top of nothing or 2nd best from a bad holding) we can usually work out that partner has led from no honors by using the Rule of 11 and seeing that partner’s lead cannot have been a 4th best.
Note: Sometimes we may have confusion when partner leads top of nothing. It can appear as if they are leading top of a doubleton. It is up to 3rd seat to try to work out the possible holdings to determine what partner could be leading from, which is sometimes a challenge, and figure out the position based on other factors/information from the hand.
Interior Sequence
When partner leads a high spot card (or even some honors), another option for what that lead can be (instead of top of nothing) is that it is from an interior sequence.
AQJ+ (NT only)
AJT+ (NT only)
KJT+
KT9+
AT9+ (NT only)
QT9+
Coded 10s/9s and Jack Denies
Non-standard Optional Agreement
Some players lead the T or 9 from their interior sequences, even if it is not the top of that interior sequence. Therefore, when they lead a Jack, it denies holding any higher honor in the suit.
JT+ (same as a standard lead)
KJT
AJT (NT only)
QT9
KT9
AT9 (NT only)
If this is our treatment/agreement, then we need to make sure to make use of the inferences available to us when visualizing the opening lead. In this case, the T or 9 lead shows either zero cards higher (top of nothing) or two cards higher (including specifically the card right above it).
Conclusion
When you are “3rd hand”, interpreting your partner’s opening lead can be difficult. There are some useful tools, like the Rule of 11, but the most important thing is to consider the possible types of leads partner may have chosen from: 4th Best, Touching Honors, Top of Nothing, Interior Sequence, etc. If you can figure out the type of lead that partner is making, you will be in a good position to figure out the right card to play to trick 1 and how to later defend the hand. Work hard at improving your skills in this position, it is something you will be doing regularly.