First Lead Conventions ---------------------- Any player who plays the first card of a trick is said to "have the lead" or to "be leading". The Attack ---------- The very first lead of a game is always by the player just before the dummy. That first lead can be quite important for whether the contract is lost or won, and for this reason the first lead is sometimes referred to as "The Attack". The opponents are trying to attack the contract player in order to "set the contract". Information exchange -------------------- The choice of first lead can be important for the outcome, but it can also be used to exchange information between the opponents about where the contract may be weak and might be "set" (broken). What are attack conventions? ---------------------------- First Lead Conventions are just like "Bidding Conventions". This means they are not part of the rules, they are an agreement between you and your partner. When you attack with a certain card then you are telling your partner something. I will propose a few common conventions which I propose that we should all try to adhere to as long as we keep the system where we switch partners. Playing a trump contract or a NT contract are completely different things, and therefore the counter play for those contracts are also completely different. Playing a NT contract is more difficult and more risky than a trump contract. If you lose control of a suit in a trump contract then it is no big deal as long as you have trump control. The trump will always bring you back into the game. If you lose a suit control in a NT contract then that is likely to be fatal as you may never be allowed back in the game. For this reason it is very important to remember that the attack conventions for trump contracts and NT contracts are completely different. Trump contracts are the most common so let us start with those. Trump contract self evident considerations ------------------------------------------- The first two very, VERY important things to consider are actually "what never to do" rules of thumb rather than conventions. 1) NEVER-EVER-EVER play a smaller card in a suit if you have the Ace!!! (if you do then you might give the other team both a cheap trick and a possibility to later trump your Ace). 2) NEVER-EVER-EVER "attack" in the trump suit. That would not be an attack at all, that would be like dropping your weapons and putting your hands into the air. The next thing to consider when choosing your attack weapon is "what do you know about partners hand"? Did your partner pass the whole way through, or did he/she manage to make a bid? If partner did make a bid then you should "most likely" attack in the suit that your partner showed you. "Most likely" here means "in effect always unless it is obviously the wrong thing to do" (e.g. item (2) above). 3) If partner did make a bid then attack in that suit. One more "do not" convention which is not as strong as the first two conventions: 4) Do not attack with an ace unless you have the king. Aces sitting alone should in general be kept and used to beat down one of the opponents high cards. This is secondary to item (3) above, i.e. it is fine to attack with a single ace in partners strong suit. Note that those four item are listed in a hierarchy i.e. apply the top one with the highest priority, fourth one with the lowest. Trump Contract First Lead Conventions -------------------------------------- Here I list the actual conventions I propose to use, again in a hierarchical way. 5) Attack with the top of a pair of neighbour honours (in this case the 10 is considered an honour). E.g. with Ace/King you attack with the Ace, with Jack/10 you attack with the Jack. If you have more than one pair to choose from then take the highest. Note that you "promise" your partner that you have the other card (except if you attack in partners suit, then you may play a single honour just to support partner). 6) Singleton. If you have a singleton then play that and hope to get a cheap trump trick if the suit is played again while you still have trumps. Note that this is useless if you have no trumps!! Basically this play requires at minimum one trump in your hand. 7) Invite partner by playing the lowest card in your best suit. This play "demands" of partner to play his/her highest card in that suit. All of the above leads can be considered attacks. If none of those are in your arsenal of weapons, i.e. if your hand has no possibility for one of the active plays, then your last option is a "passive lead": 8) "Top of nothing" (passive lead). This means pick your longest suit, play the highest card (typically a 9 or 10 from a suit with 5 cards). If the highest card is a Jack then it is a honour and you should rather invite with the lowest card instead. Information exchanged --------------------- A lot of information can be exchanged this way. Not only about what your partner has, but also what he does not have. I don't want to go through all of the possibilities here, there are many - but in the future when you see an attack from your partner then take a moment to think about what you have learned about his hand. E.g. if he plays a King then he promises at least the Queen in the same suit but he denies the Ace. Also he denies an Ace/King pair in any of the other playable suits (but remember that it may simply be a singleton play of course). In case you as his partner had made a bid in the suit he attacks in then he does not promise anything, he simply tries to help your best suit get even better. In case you bid some other suit, then your partner is probably renonce in that suit (since he did not attack in it) and he may be able to help your suit with a trump trick of opponents ace. If your partner plays a low card (2-3-4-5) then it is likely an invitation in his best suit and he expects you to hammer it as high as you can. If your partner plays a middle card (8-9-10) then it is just him throwing his hands into the air saying "sorry, my hand is crap - I have nothing to attack with". (Still recall that in both situations it could also be a singleton play). In any case, you now have access to a new tool to learn about your partners hand. Try to visualize his hand as you go along and gain information during the bidding and playing. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of Attack against Trump ------------------------------- 1) NEVER-EVER-EVER lead a smaller card in a suit if you have the Ace!!! 2) NEVER-EVER-EVER "attack" in the trump suit. 3) If partner did make a bid then attack in that suit. 4) Do not attack with an ace unless you have the king. 5) Attack with the top of a pair of neighbour honours (in this case the 10 is considered an honour). E.g. with Ace/King you attack with the Ace, with Jack/10 you attack with the Jack. If you have more than one pair to choose from then take the highest. 6) Singleton. 7) Invite partner by playing the lowest card in your best suit. This play "demands" of partner to play his/her highest card in that suit. 8) "Top of nothing" (passive lead). This means pick your longest suit, play the highest card (typically a 9 or 10 from a suit with 5 cards). -------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of Attack against NT ---------------------------- 1) If partner did make a bid then attack in that suit. 2) NEVER-EVER attack with an ace unless you have the king and queen. 3) Attack with the top of a sequence (minimum 3 honours in a row). 4) Invite in your best suit (but only if it has at least 5 cards). 5) Play "top of nothing". -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- How to call, how to reject -------------------------- To call: Play the lowest card you have in that suit To reject: Play a "mid-size" card in that suit Say that your partner attacks with Ace of Hearts, the contract is in spades. Playing the Ace he promises also to have the king. Now after the ace, should he play the king and go on with Hearts, or should he go somewhere else? - You must decide!!! If you have the Queen, then you want him to play a small Heart for your Queen. If you have only 2 hearts, and at least one Spade, then you can trump his third Heart, and you want him to play it. If you only have 3 or four useless hearts then you must reject. So, say you have Queen, 8, 7, 2 in hearts. If you play the 8 then you tell partner NOT to play more hearts - which would be a mistake, so you play the 2. This tells partner to play the king and then a small Heart for your Queen.