Listening to the Auction

I've been at the horns of a lot of lead problems recently. As everyone knows, leads are a difficult part of the game because it is the one card played during the entire hand when only 13 cards are in view, therefore the least information is available. As such, it's usually quite important for whoever is on lead to think critically about the auction to incorporate any spare scraps on information they can into their decision. Together with common lead principles (top of a sequence, A or K from AK) an effective lead can more often be made than if one considers conventional leads alone.

I particularly enjoy giving lead problems to my friend, Han Peters. His thoughts are often quite in depth, and he is quite often able to guess the opponents' hand shapes within a card or two. Shape is important on lead because it often will direct the defense. Common lead questions when considering the auction are: would a forcing defense be effective? and which suit is most likely to hit partner?

A hand:



Before clicking next, think about the auction and consider the following questions.

1) Where are all the high-card points? If lefty has 15-17, righty has 9 or more (a texas transfer to spades was available) and we have 7, then partner has AT MOST 9 high card points.
2) What is partner's second suit?Looking at our diamond suit, partner's minor suit is overwhelmingly likely to be clubs.
3) Which of partner's suits would he like led? Typically at equal vulnerability you would want to have a good reason to think you aren't going to get your brains beaten out after you intervene over the opponents' 1NT. Therefore, it seems quite likely that partner has a very shapely hand that contains more than just 4 clubs, and possibly more than 5 hearts. So I guess this is a trick question. Considering these inferences together, I think that the diamond ace is the standout lead on this hand.

Consider the possible benefits: If LHO holds the diamond king (which is likely) then, if partner is short in diamonds, we can take a ruffing finesse to deny declarer this trick. Another possibility is that partner is VOID in diamonds, and you'll need to lead them on the go otherwise lose partner's ruff forever, since you have no entry to your hand. Click 'Next' on the movie.

As you can see, the diamond ace is the only lead that beats the hand. I was happy to get this problem right at the table. However, I was surprised to hear several of my friends say they would lead a heart when I gave them this problem. "I tend to lead partner's suit," was a typical response. Well, I contend that often the auction as a whole, not just partner's actions, can tell us what partner ACTUALLY wants led.