One of the most interesting decisions in bridge comes before dummy appears:
What should I lead?
We have heard the bidding and studied our own thirteen cards, but we still
cannot see partner’s hand or either opponent’s. That first card is our opening
move in a partnership effort to defeat the contract.
I like to begin with a few practical guidelines: lead a suit partner has bid;
consider a singleton against a suit contract; and against no-trump, look for
a fourth-best lead from a long, strong suit.
These are useful starting points, provided we remember that they are guidelines
rather than automatic rules. The key word is purpose. Before choosing a card,
ask: What am I trying to accomplish with this lead?
First, Listen to Your Partner’s Bidding
One rule I follow is simple: When partner has bid a suit, give serious consideration
to leading it.
Partner’s bid gives us information about where our side may have length and
strength. Leading that suit can help establish winners or put partner on lead
to direct the defense. This applies against both suit and no-trump contracts.
For example, if partner has overcalled hearts and the opponents finish in
three no-trump, a heart is a natural starting point. Rather than trying to establish
a suit entirely on my own, I can work with the suit partner has already advertised.
Of course, bridge rarely rewards the word “always.” A strong honor sequence of
my own or other clues from the auction may suggest a different lead.
Nevertheless, partner’s suit belongs near the top of my checklist.
Against a Suit Contract: Consider a Singleton
When partner has not bid, one of my first thoughts against a suit contract is
to look for a singleton—a suit in which I hold only one card.
The attraction is easy to understand: After I lead my only card in that suit,
I have none left. If partner wins the trick, or gains the lead soon enough,
partner may return the suit and let me trump it. That trumping play is called a ruff.
Suppose the opponents are playing four spades, and I hold:
Spades: 8–6–3
Hearts: 5
Diamonds: K–J–8–4–2
Clubs: Q–9–7–4
The five of hearts is an attractive candidate. If partner can win the ace of
hearts and return a heart, I may score a trick with a small spade that would
A Singleton Is an Opportunity, Not a Command
The important question is not simply, “Do I have a singleton?” It is,
“Do I have a realistic chance of getting a ruff?”
A singleton lead is more attractive when I have a small trump available and
partner has a reasonable chance of gaining the lead. It is less attractive
when my trumps are already likely to win naturally. For example, with Q–J–10
in trumps, ruffing may merely use a trump that would have scored a trick anyway.
So I would phrase my guideline this way:
Against a suit contract, consider a singleton side-suit lead when it offers a realistic chance to gain an extra trump trick.That qualification
keeps a useful rule from becoming a mechanical habit.
Against No-Trump: Put Your Long Suit to Work
Against no-trump, the plan changes. There is no trump suit, so declarer cannot
ruff our established winners. Our long suit can therefore become a source of
defensive tricks once the opponents’ higher cards have been driven out.
This is where the familiar guideline comes in:
Suppose I hold these five hearts:
K–J–8–6–3
Counting down from the highest card:
King
Jack
Eight
Six
Three
The fourth-best card is the six, so that is the normal lead from this holding
against no-trump under standard fourth-best agreements. The idea is to begin establishing the suit, not necessarily to win the first trick.
A five-card suit is especially promising, but the guideline can also apply to a
four-card suit. “Longest and strongest” is the useful phrase—not simply “any suit containing five cards.”
An Important Distinction: A Long Suit Is Not Necessarily a Sequence
There is one small but important clarification to the fourth-best rule.
In bridge, a sequence means consecutive cards, especially touching honors
such as K–Q–J or Q–J–10. It does not simply mean the five cards we happen
to hold in a suit.
Compare these two no-trump leads:
| Holding | Usual lead | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| K–J–8–6–3 | Six | Fourth-best from a long suit without an honor sequence |
| K–Q–J–6–3 | King | Top of the honor sequence |
| Q–J–10–7–2 | Queen | Top of the honor sequence |
Leading the top of a solid honor sequence helps force out the opponents’ higher
cards while keeping the remaining honors ready to take tricks. Thus, the
sequence exception takes priority over blindly counting down to the fourth card.
My reminder is:
Fourth-best from length; top of an honor sequence.
Why the Two Types of Contract Need Different Plans
The difference comes down to what trumps allow declarer and the defenders
to do.
Against no-trump, we often have time to establish a long suit. Once the higher
opposing cards are gone, even our small cards may become winners. Against
a suit contract, declarer may trump those same small cards, so a long-suit
strategy is not automatically as useful. A singleton lead, however, may let our
side turn a small trump into an immediate trick.
There are also suit contracts where a trump lead is appropriate—for example,
when the auction suggests that declarer wants to use dummy’s trumps to
ruff losers. In those cases, taking away trumps may be more useful than
That is why listening to the whole auction matters. Partner’s bid is valuable
information, but so are the opponents’ bids. Against no-trump, in particular, an opponent’s bid suit may be a reason to choose a different long suit.
My Opening Lead Check List:
Before putting a card on the table, I like this short checklist:
2. Against a suit contract, do I have a singleton that could produce a useful ruff?
3. Against no-trump, which long, strong suit offers the best chance to establish
4. Do I have an honor sequence? If so, consider its top card rather than
5. Does the auction give me a reason to depart from the usual guideline?
The opening lead is not about finding a rule that removes every difficult
decision. It is about giving our first card a sensible job: helping partner,
establishing winners, earning a ruff, or interfering with declarer’s plan.
That is part of what makes bridge so engaging. Even before dummy
comes down, the thinking has already begun.
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