LONG SUIT HONOR LEADS VS. NOTRUMP by Morris Clark

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1 LONG SUIT HONOR LEADS VS. NOTRUMP by Morris Clark Here we present an improved system of honor leads against notrump contracts below slam level. A detailed discussion of when an honor should be preferred to a fourth-best lead is outside the scope of this discussion. That is a matter of fundamentals rather than partnership understanding, and anyone needing a review of the subject might consult the comprehensive tabulation in the ACBL s Official Encyclopedia of Bridge. The system I am about to propose (Foolproof Leads?) is a variation on the Journalist honor leads which proved so superior to the standard practice of their day. In summary they are as follows. Ace asks partner to play queen or jack, otherwise signal count. King is standard, except partner plays queen or jack if doubleton. Queen denies ace or king. Jack is part of an interior sequence. Ten denies anything higher except maybe the jack. Nine is part of an interior sequence which lacks the jack. ACE is led from a suit which is solid except for the queen or jack. Partner plays the missing honor if he has it. If not, he plays his highest card with an even number, his lowest with an odd number. Thus when the queen or jack is with declarer, opening leader knows whether to continue the suit or not. 9 5 A K Q J 6 4 A K Q A J J 10 K Q J A K Q 8 1 NT pass 3 pass 3 NT all pass West leads the A and East signals count with the 2. This means the jack is not going to drop; it also means that West can cash one more spade without exhausting East s supply. When he does so East plays the 8. Here is one of the unusual cases where a suit preference signal can be given against a notrump contract. A heart is obviously not appropriate, so East s 8 suggests something in the higher minor. West reaches his partner s A for the spade return that destroys the contract. The count signal can also be useful when the missing honor is in dummy:

2 Q 4 2 Q J 10 2 A 6 3 Q 6 3 J K Q J 2 A K J A 8 5 A K K pass 1 pass 1 NT pass 2 NT pass 3 NT all pass West leads the A. (He would have to be clarivoyant to lead a low one.) East s 9 tells him that it is already too late to establish the suit. West should shift to the J immediately; then South will have to be careful to hold the loss to down one. KING is from a strong suit headed by K-Q or from one headed by A-K where wasting partner s high card might not be affordable. The leader expects the usual attitude signal from his partner. Partner, however, should unblock a doubleton queen or jack (unless he clearly can t afford to), and the leader must realize that the queen or jack under his king is not an encouragement but a warning of a doubleton. K Q 7 Q J 6 Q A A K J 9 Q 8 J 8 5 A K 10 A K J Against 3NT, West s K lead brings down East s Q. West must shift and save East s other club for a later lead through declarer s 10. This doubleton unblocking convention has a very slight drawback in that third hand might need to use a face card for encouragement when he holds both queen and jack. But the only correct king lead from a long suit missing both those cards is from a holding headed by A-K In that instance the understanding may be costly when third hand has Q-J or Q-J-x. But this is a very specific combination which will occur rarely. The advantage far outweighs.

3 If he can assume that the lead of a king is from a long suit, when there is a spot tripleton in dummy third hand must encourage with any four cards. Because an encouraging signal may be based on four spot cards when dummy has a weak tripleton, the leader must continue a high card under that circumstance instead of the more usual underlead. To spotlight the logic of the understanding, consider the following distribution of a suit around the table: LEADER PARTNER A K J Q 6 West leads the king and east plays the ten. In view of dummy s tripleton, West must continue with the ace. If East had played the ten from Q-10-x, then declarer would have x-x-x, and East could afford to unblock the queen at the second trick.here is another case: ` WEST EAST K Q A J West leads the king, East plays the nine, and Declarer wins the ace. If West obtains the lead again he must continue with the queen. If East had encouraged because he had J-9-x then he would jettison the jack under the queen. But what if the suit were distributed WEST EAST K Q 10 2 A 9 3 J 8 6 On seeing dummy s holding East could afford to overtake the first round in order to return the suit through declarer s possible jack. QUEEN is from a suit headed by Q-J-10 or Q-J-9. Here is a deal that would cause problems for many: (continued next page)

4 7 4 3 A Q 6 A J Q 5 4 K J 6 1 NT pass 3 NT all pass Using normal lead conventions West leads the Q and this is what you see as East. South wins the first trick with the K. He then takes the K and passes the 9, West following with the 2 and 8.??? What you should do now is a guess, because West may have led from a suit topped by Q-J or by A-Q-J. If you play the present recommendation, the queen denied a higher honor, and it s mighty obvious that the contract will succeed unless the defense takes four club tricks immediately. So you pump back the J, the one card that will always defeat the contract if it can be defeated. The other two hands may be Q J A A K K J 10 4 K 9 7 Q JACK is the suggested lead from suits like A-Q-J-9-5, A-J-10-9, and K-J Keeping the same North and East hands from the previous example, the other two hands could have been A Q J K 8 K J 10 4 K 9 7 A Q 8 5 In that case the opening lead would have been the J part of an interior sequence. No problem. TEN, when led from a long suit, is always the top card in an external (regular) sequence or the top card except for the jack. You will rarely encounter a hand where this

5 ambiguity is critical. The ten would be led from J or , or, for that matter, from the short suit J NINE from a long suit is part or an interior sequence of which the jack is not a member. So the nine is recommended from the likes of A , K , or Q

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