Source: www.acbl-district13.org The most important cards in a deck of 52 are the honor cards. Yet many bridge players misplay these cards regularly. As a defender, a great deal of confusion can arise from playing one’s honor cards in the wrong order and a great deal of information can be conveyed to one’s partner by correct play of these cards. As an adjunct, a good declarer will play honor cards in a manner which not only doesn’t help the defenders, but may actually lead them astray. Honor play by the defenders can be divided into four categories: leading a suit, third hand play to a suit which partner has led, second hand play to a suit played by declarer, and fourth hand play to declarer’s (or dummy’s) lead. The proper plays in each of these positional categories are further subdivided by whether one’s play will capture the trick. These plays are also influenced by whether the contract is no trump or suited. Leads: Let’s start with the simple stuff – “Leading Honor Cards”. Every partnership must have a set of agreements regarding the leads of honors. Generally these agreements are the same for leads during the hand and for opening leads. Let’s assume that your opening lead agreement is to lead the “highest of touching honors” in suit contracts. In no-trump contracts your agreement is to lead the highest of touching honors with the following variations: (1) The lead of a Queen asks partner to unblock (play) the Jack; (2) The lead of a King asks for an unblock of any honor card; and (3) The lead of an Ace asks for attitude (i.e. signal whether you like the lead of this suit?) These agreements are long-tested, solidly thought-out agreements. They are used by experts as well as beginners. If you follow these agreements, you will be able to play easily with anyone. Now you know which honor to lead. How do you decide when to lead an honor card? First, if you hold a sequence of four honor cards, it is almost always best to lead that suit. A sequence of three honors is almost as good to lead, especially against a suit contract, where tricks can go away. A three card honor sequence in a long suit is often better to lead than the same sequence in a short suit, where you might be leading declarer’s (or dummy’s) side suit. Two card sequences are more dangerous to lead, but are often the best choice against suit contracts. The strongest two card sequence is Ace-King. Leading the Ace allows you to hold the trick and see dummy. Your partner’s play should help you decide whether to continue the suit and with which card to continue. As a simple example, if dummy holds three small cards in the suit and your partner follows with an encouraging card, you would generally continue with the King and then lead a small card for your partner to win either with the Queen or a trump. If dummy or you have length in the suit led, you must be careful to avoid crashing your side’s honors and losing a trick. If partner plays the Queen under your Ace, he is telling you that he can win the next trick in that suit (assuming you hold the King). He holds either the singleton Queen or a sequence containing at least the Queen-Jack A special signaling situation also occurs when the Ace is led (presumably from Ace-King). If the Queen is in dummy, partner should give count so that the leader knows whether or not the King will cash. Leading from a King-Queen combination establishes a trick quickly, even when declarer holds the Ace. Unfortunately, leading from this holding can cost a trick, when the declaring side holds both the Ace and the Jack. Leading from King-Queen in a long suit is less likely to cost a trick and also quickly establishes a trick in a suit which declarer might be able to discard given sufficient time. On the lead of a King, partner can encourage when he holds the Jack, since he presumes you hold the King-Queen. Conversely, he generally will not encourage you to continue the suit if you lead the Ace and he holds the Jack, since declarer probably holds the Queen. The least desirable lead of the two card holdings is Queen-Jack. There are many positions that exist where the lead of the Queen costs a trick. On the other hand, if you hold a long suit headed by the Queen-Jack, the lead is less likely to cost a trick and often establishes tricks for your side. Once dummy appears, it becomes easier to analyze the value and risk associated with leading from a Queen-Jack holding. A good example of this is when declarer holds A9x and dummy holds KTx. If you lead the Queen on opening lead, declarer will always play you to hold the Jack and will finesse you for that card. During the hand, declarer knows that you see the King-Ten in dummy and will have to guess whether you simply led the Queen from an empty holding, hoping to find partner with the Ace-Jack. Against no-trump contracts is good to lead from long suits headed by honors. However, don’t lead the honors unless you hold at least a three card sequence. Lead fourth best instead. A three card broken sequence such as QJ9xx is a better holding than just QJxxx, but it is still preferable to lead fourth best from these holdings against no-trump contracts. The special honor leads against no-trump handle certain specific situations. With a holding like AKJT, you want partner to drop the Queen if he holds it. Therefore you lead the King asking for the “unblock.” On the lead of the King, partner will normally unblock the Ace or the Queen and should otherwise give count so the leader can determine declarer’s holding. The lead of the Ace asks for “attitude”. This lead is made when the leader doesn’t have an attractive suit to lead and believes partner might have length in the led suit. The risk of course is that the lead helps declarer establish his suit. The lead of the Ace from AKx is often a good attack when the defending side is known to hold few high cards and is going to need a lucky lie of the cards to beat the contract. If partner holds Qxxxx or even the Jack and length in the suit, this can be the killing lead. The lead of the Queen is made from holdings like KQT9 and asks partner to unblock the Jack. Against both suit and no-trump contracts, it is standard to lead the highest touching honor from interior sequences such as KJT9, QT98 and AJT9 (rarely led in suit contracts). In no-trump, it is usually right to lead a low card rather than an honor from interior sequences containing only two touching cards, such as KJTxx. THIRD HAND PLAY: Assume partner has led a suit in which you hold touching honors. You should normally play the “lowest of the touching honors” in an effort to win the trick or force a higher card from the fourth hand. In many situations this will reveal to partner, that you hold the honors, he cannot see. For example, if partner has led low from the King and you hold the QueenJack, playing the Jack to force declarer’s Ace will reveal to partner that you have the Queen, since declarer would otherwise have won the trick with that card. Once you have played the lowest of your touching honors, you can play the highest of the remaining honors to reveal your complete holding in the suit. As an example, from QJT you would play the Ten on the first round of the suit and the Queen on the second round. If declarer captures your Ten with the Ace and your Queen with the King partner will know you also hold the Jack. If you play the Ten followed by the Jack, partner can infer that declarer has the Queen. The most common variance from the play of the lowest touching honor occurs when you hold a doubleton. You can play the higher honor, if you will either be holding the trick (e.g. AK doubleton) or will be obtaining the lead before partner, so that you can play back your lower honor and show the doubleton. If no card in your hand can beat the cards played to the trick ahead of your hand (e.g. partner leads low and dummy plays the Ace), you can play the highest of your touching honors to reveal your holding to partner. This is only done with three or more touching cards, since it is too easy to blow a trick with this play. This can also be a useful play in a suit where you know your side can take only the next trick and partner may want to underlead an honor to leave you on lead after that trick As an example, suppose you opened a weak-two bid on a holding of QJxxxx and partner has raised the suit and leads the deuce. If dummy has Ace doubleton in that suit and a weak holding, such as three small, in a side suit, you can drop the Queen under the Ace. Then partner can safely lead low to your hand if he started with Kxx so you can play the side suit up to his tenace. While partner might find this play anyway if you simply encourage the suit, the play of the Queen makes his life easy. Most importantly, if partner doesn’t have the King, he will know declarer holds that card and that no tricks are available to the defense in the led suit. Third hand honor play can be summarized as: Win the trick as cheaply as possible.

To be continued…

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