[keithhus]

appreciate advice please.
I held A balanced hand but with only one honour. Longest (and strongest suit) was diamonds (4) headed by the king. Ops were in 3NT. D were not bid. I led the 4th D (I.e. 4th from honour). Comment was made that I should never lead from K. I know the "rule" but is it sacrosanct in all circumstances -I.e. Should I have led another suit/should I have led the K!!? Txs

[neilkaz]

Please give us 1) any and all bidding and 2) your exact hand.

[ahydra]

There's no hard-and-fast rules in bridge, but here are some tips for leading in situations like the one you describe.

1) Form of scoring is important. MPs you want to lead safe to avoid giving away an overtrick that could turn your average into a bottom. IMPs, you want to defeat the contract and so often an aggressive lead is called for.

2) Leading from an honour, particularly a broken honour sequence (e.g. low from AJxx), is a good way to give away tricks. Avoid it if possible - unless, of course, you're playing IMPs and think from the bidding that finding partner with a matching honour is the best shot at defeating the contract.

3) When you have a very weak hand and are on lead to NT, try to find partner's suit rather than lead your own. After all, it's your partner who has the entries so if his suit can be set up, he might be able to run it later in the play.

ahydra

[helene_t]

There is no such rule. Certainly not against notrumps.

But please post the auction and your hand.

[mikeh]

I have seen some players claim that they never lead away from a King, which always strikes me as problematic since once in a while one has the King in all the suits one holds

Strangely enough, some of the same players think little of leading away from an Ace, even against a suit contract, or of laying the Ace down, even when doing so risks a huge swing in tempo.

My advice to you is that when somebody tells you that you should never underlead a King, make a mental note to pay no attention to any bridge advice emanating from that source.

As to how to lead: there are a number of good books out there that will provide not only specific suggestions but also good 'rules' or guidelines. The better ones will tell you that your choice of lead is always determined by context. It is simply wrong to opine firmly about the right lead without knowing the exact hand and the entire auction.

Terrence Reese, the finest writer of his day and one of the best to ever play the game, once wrote to the effect that there is no such thing as a blind lead....only a deaf leader...that was in the days when all bidding was verbal.

To give you one extreme example, say you hold something like KJ109xx in a suit and a side Ace, and rho is declarer in 3N, after you have bid your suit.

In some circumstances the 'correct' lead will be the K! (That would be the case if you felt that dummy was likely short in the suit and that declarer probably held the Ace. The idea is that dummy may hold the stiff Q. If declarer holds both A and Q, any lead of the suit blows a trick, so the K is as good as the J/10/9. And of course partner may have the stiff Q as well....and declarer simply ducks and your partner can't continue.


Does that make the K the 'right' lead all the time? No. Altho in the given example, it probably would be....to be definitive requires the whole hand and auction.

So learn that simple rules are often misleading even when they are correct (because there are almost always exceptions), and that most players actually don't know the game very well, and that you should prefer to look for advice to the strongest players you can find and/or buy books by real life experts. Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do these days.

Btw, my experience is that so long as you don't overdo it, almost all experts are more than happy to answer questions (tho one of my friends tells me that his pet peeve is that at tournaments people come up to him, ask him his advice, he gives it, and then many of them tell him he is wrong )

[keithhus]

Thank you all for your responses which I will study further. Just wanted to apologise, I posted on wrong forum. Txs again.

[billw55]

 mikeh, on 2015-March-25, 11:37, said:

My advice to you is that when somebody tells you that you should never underlead a King, make a mental note to pay no attention to any bridge advice emanating from that source.

This.

"Never lead from a king" is sometimes heard from bad players who fancy themselves good. No genuinely good player thinks this.

[mikeh]

 keithhus, on 2015-March-25, 12:10, said:

Thank you all for your responses which I will study further. Just wanted to apologise, I posted on wrong forum. Txs again.

hey, don't sweat it. We all start somewhere! I hope you keep posting.

[FrancesHinden]

 billw55, on 2015-March-25, 14:25, said:

This.

"Never lead from a king" is sometimes heard from bad players who fancy themselves good. No genuinely good player thinks this.

I know a couple of extremely good players who believe this*. Extremely good in the sense of having won Bermuda Bowl medals and US nationals (and other top events).

*yes, with some obvious exceptions on revealing auctions. But not many.

[billw55]

 FrancesHinden, on 2015-March-26, 04:47, said:

I know a couple of extremely good players who believe this*. Extremely good in the sense of having won Bermuda Bowl medals and US nationals (and other top events).

*yes, with some obvious exceptions on revealing auctions. But not many.

"obvious" or "revealing" may have very different applications to players of differing skill.

[dave_beer]

 mikeh, on 2015-March-25, 11:37, said:

As to how to lead: there are a number of good books out there that will provide not only specific suggestions but also good 'rules' or guidelines. The better ones will tell you that your choice of lead is always determined by context. It is simply wrong to opine firmly about the right lead without knowing the exact hand and the entire auction.

There are two relatively recent books by David Bird and Taf Anthias - one on leads against NT contracts and the other on leads against suit contracts.

The advice they give is based on simulations of what the opponents' hands could be given the auction and how different leads work with a given hand (or hand type).

Their conclusion is that certain leads work better on average than others but that is no guarantee that they will work better on any given hand.

[Edna Tyson]

I tell my partners that say "I never lead from a King". I laugh and say that in that eternal
life you have every hand with 4 kings and then
you ask "Where am I"

[zillahandp]

The criticism of your lead reveals your p has no idea about playing bridge. Give full hand and see what we think but comment never ... Is stupid

[zillahandp]

Frances. h eh? Very few nevers in bridge especially on opening lead., never stop counting, never Give up till you must not much more