Opening Leads Against a Suit Contract: What to Lead

Against a suit contract, lead partner's suit if partner bid one. If not, the best leads are A-K and the top of an honor sequence (K-Q-J, Q-J-10, even K-Q-x), then a singleton when you hold two or three small trumps, then a trump when the auction says dummy will ruff. Avoid leading low from an ace, leading away from K-J, and leading a singleton honor.

Leads in bridge work differently against notrump. There you try to set up your long suit and take the tricks at the end. Against a suit contract your long suit does not last: declarer ruffs the third round. So you look for tricks that come fast, a ruff of your own, or a lead that gives declarer nothing. This guide shows how to pick between them, with two real deals solved double dummy.

No list replaces the auction, but this order is a good start. Go down it until a lead fits your hand:

The first three are the safe, strong leads. When you have one of them, you need a good reason to look elsewhere. The rest depend on what the opponents bid, and the next sections show how to read that.

When partner bids or overcalls a suit, lead it unless you have a clear reason not to. Partner promised values there, and an overcall is often made partly to ask for that lead. The standard cards in partner's suit:

• Doubleton: the top card, then the lower one (9 from 9-4, K from K-4).
• Three to an honor: low (3 from K-7-3, 2 from Q-8-2), so partner can place your honor.
• Three small: the top card (8 from 8-6-3), or the middle card if you play MUD.
• Ace in partner's suit: lead the ace (A from A-7-3). Underleading an ace against a suit contract can lose the ace to a ruff.

The two good reasons not to lead partner's suit: you hold a strong sequence of your own, or you have a singleton in another suit and a trump entry, so a ruff looks better.

A-K is the most comfortable lead in bridge. You win the first trick, you see dummy, partner signals, and you still hold the lead to choose what comes next. Most partnerships lead the ace from A-K against a suit contract. Rusinow pairs lead the king; the card details are in the standard opening leads chart.

Sequences come next. From K-Q-J, Q-J-10 or J-10-9 you lead the top card. Unlike the case against notrump, two touching honors are enough against a suit: from K-Q-x lead the king. Once declarer takes the ace, your queen is a trick, and against a suit contract you need it before declarer can ruff the suit or discard his losers in it on dummy's long suit.

Leading an ace without the king is a different matter. From A-7-5-2 the ace usually helps declarer: it sets up his king, and you give up the chance to capture an honor later. It is fine against a slam or when partner bid the suit, and sometimes it is the least bad lead. On most hands, look for something better.

A singleton lead hopes for this: partner wins the trick, or gets in later, and returns the suit for you to ruff. It is a strong lead when the conditions are right and a waste when they are not.

Lead the singleton when:

• You hold two or three small trumps, so you have trumps to ruff with and no trump trick to lose.
• Your hand is weak, so partner is likely to hold the entries.
• You hold the ace of trumps: you win the first trump and give partner the lead for a second ruff.
• Partner bid, which makes it more likely he holds an ace to win and return the suit.

Avoid the singleton when:

• You hold four trumps. Then you want to make declarer ruff, not ruff yourself (see the next section on forcing declarer).
• Your trumps are already a natural trick, such as Q-J-10. Ruffing with one of them gains nothing.
• Your hand is strong, because partner has no entry to give you the ruff.
• The singleton is an honor. A singleton king or queen can give declarer a free trick.

Here is a deal where the singleton is the only lead that beats the contract. East opens 1♠, West makes a limit raise to 3♠ (10-12 points with spade support), and East goes on to game.

You hold only 3 HCP, three small trumps and a singleton ♥6. Partner, with 12 HCP, must hold most of the defense's strength.

Lead the ♥6 and 4♠ goes down one. Lead the ♦Q and declarer makes it. The double dummy solver gives the defense four tricks after the heart and three after any other lead.

The defense after the heart lead: partner wins the ♥A and returns a heart, and you ruff. When declarer leads trumps, partner wins the ♠A and gives you a second heart ruff. That is two aces and two ruffs. The ♦Q looks safe, but it gives you no ruffs: declarer wins the ♦A, draws trumps and gives up only two hearts and the ♠A.

Every condition from the list is here. Your trumps are small, your hand is weak, and partner has the entries.

A trump lead is right when declarer's plan is to ruff losers in dummy. Each trump you lead removes one of dummy's trumps before it can ruff. The auction usually tells you when:

1. Opener shows two suits and dummy gives preference to the first at a low level. In 1♠ - 1NT - 2♥ - 2♠, dummy usually has two spades and no more hearts than spades. Declarer wants to ruff hearts in dummy. If you hold strong hearts, lead a trump.
2. Partner passes your takeout double for penalty. Partner has long, strong trumps, so lead a trump and help draw declarer's.
3. The opponents sacrifice. A sacrifice usually has long trumps, short side suits and few high cards, so declarer needs ruffs to take tricks.
4. Every other lead looks dangerous and you hold small trumps. Then a trump is the safe, passive choice.

Do not lead a trump from Q-x, J-x-x or a singleton. Those holdings can take a trick on their own, or protect partner's trump honor, and a lead throws that away. When counting declarer's tricks shows that ruffs are declarer's only source of extra tricks, a trump lead is often the strongest lead you have.

Here is the first auction from the list. East opens 1♠ and shows hearts. West, with a weak hand, gives preference back to spades.

You hold 9 HCP with K-Q-10-9 of hearts. The heart king looks natural, but the auction says something better: declarer has at least four hearts, and dummy took a preference to spades, so dummy is short in hearts.

Lead a trump and 2♠ goes down one. Lead the ♥K and declarer makes eight tricks. Lead a club or a low diamond and declarer makes nine, and the ♦A lets him make ten. Those are the double dummy results for this deal.

Declarer's hearts are J-8-7-3, and your side holds the ace, king, queen, 10 and 9. Declarer cannot win heart tricks in his own hand, so his plan is to ruff hearts in dummy, which has a singleton heart and two trumps. Each trump lead takes away one of those ruffs. When you or partner win a heart trick later, lead another trump.

The ♥K lead is the trap. It wins a trick, but it does not stop the ruffs, and declarer still scores dummy's small trumps.

When you hold four trumps, change your plan. Lead your longest side suit and keep leading it. Each time declarer ruffs, his trumps get shorter. If he ruffs often enough, you end with more trumps than he has, and he loses control of the hand.

This is called the forcing defense. It works best when declarer has only a 5-3 or 4-4 trump fit and your long suit is the one dummy cannot ruff. It is also the main reason not to lead a singleton when you hold four trumps: you would ruff with a trump that was going to be useful anyway, instead of making declarer shorten his own.

These leads cost tricks so often that you need a strong reason to make them:

• Low from an ace. From A-J-6-3, the 3 lets declarer win a trick with a king he would otherwise lose, and your ace may be ruffed on a later round. If you must lead the suit, lead the ace.
• Away from K-J or A-Q. You lead into declarer's honors. From K-J-4, the 4 gives declarer a cheap trick with the queen or the 10.
• A singleton honor or a doubleton honor. A queen alone or Q-5 often gives declarer a free finesse or costs partner's king.
• A trump from Q-x, J-x-x or a singleton. You lose a trump trick you would have won by waiting.
• An unsupported ace when another lead is available. It sets up declarer's king.

A low card from a king (K-8-6-3) is the borderline case. It costs a trick when declarer holds A-Q, but it builds a trick when partner holds the ace or the queen. Make it when you need to attack. Do not make it when a safe lead is available. The card to lead from each holding is in the standard opening leads chart.

Every lead against a suit contract is either active (it tries to win or build tricks quickly) or passive (it tries to give nothing away). The auction tells you which you need.

Lead actively when dummy has shown a long side suit or a strong hand. Declarer will discard his losers on that suit, so your side must take its tricks first. A lead from K-8-6-3 or Q-9-7-4 becomes reasonable here, even with the risk.

Lead passively when the opponents stopped in a partscore, when the auction was invitational and declarer barely accepted, or when dummy has shown no long suit. The tricks are not going anywhere. A sequence, a trump or top of nothing lets declarer find his own way to go down.

Against slams the same idea is stronger. Against a small slam you need two tricks. If you hold an ace, an attacking lead from a king in another suit can set up the second trick before declarer can discard it. Against a grand slam you need only one trick, so make the safest lead you can, often a trump.

Lead judgment comes from seeing many hands and finding out, every time, what your lead cost. BridgeDummy is built for that:

• Lead puzzles give you a hand and an auction. You choose one card, and every card in your hand is scored double dummy across hundreds to thousands of deals that fit the auction, so you see whether your singleton or your sequence was the better lead on average. Each answer gets 1 to 5 stars, at matchpoints or IMPs.
• Lead Gym lets robots bid a random deal while you watch the auction. You choose the lead, and every card is scored on deals that fit the bidding.
• The opening lead simulator takes a hand from your own game and compares every lead across deals that match the auction.

For the other half of the topic, read what to lead against 3NT. For the card to lead once you pick the suit, see the standard opening leads chart, and for how partner answers your lead, see bridge signals. The opening leads overview ties it all together.