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
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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.
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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).
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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".

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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.