By: BigMojoDaddy

You should approach the defense of a hand the same way you approach the play as declarer: with a plan. However, unlike declarer, you have to formulate your plan before you see dummy.

Now, there is a lot to this. Most of the time, in Rubber Bridge, your primary objective must be to set the contract, so you should plan to take 4 tricks against a major-suit game contract, or 5 tricks against 3NT – and lead accordingly. You can risk giving up an overtrick in order to give your side a chance to beat the contract. In Duplicate Bridge, and in certain tournament situations, your objective might be different: You might have to determine before you lead whether or not it is possible to set the contract. If not, the defense has to be sure to take their tricks before Declarer makes them disappear.

So you have to do the same thing Declarer does: Count your losers and winners – with the emphasis on winners. Your hand has the potential to take X number of tricks, and you will need Y number from partner to reach your goal.

Inexperienced players rarely consider developing tricks in their partners' hands when making opening leads.

Some tricks in your hand are "Quick Tricks" – Aces, or AK combinations, or sure tricks that can't go away, like a holding of KQx in trumps. If you are defending 4S and you have a sure trump trick and a KA holding outside, it is invariably a good play to lead K from that KA. Your next lead will depend upon what you see in dummy and what Partner plays to trick 1. Now this is a good lead because it accomplishes 3 things:

Other potential tricks are 'slow" – they need to be developed. Perhaps, against a 4S contract, you hold Q1098 of D: there is great potential for developing a trick – possibly 2 – there. Imagine that you find dummy with J53, partner with K72 and Declarer with A64. Leading the 10 will produce 2D tricks for the defense, provided that Declarer can't sluff D losers elsewhere before you can get back in. (Please note that with that lie of cards you cannot get 2 tricks in D if your partner leads them, but you will always get 2 D tricks if Declarer or dummy starts the suit.)

There is also the distinct possibility that leading from that holding will cost you a trick. If Declarer holds AKx and dummy has Jxx, that same lead of the 10 will give your opponents a bonus trick – possibly the only way they can make their bid. So do you lead the 10 of D, or not? So much depends upon what you know about the hand from the bidding and whether you have another entry to your hand. With nothing outside and no bidding from your partner, (as in this auction: 1S – pass – 3S – pass – 4S – all pass) go ahead and lead it. It might be your only chance for a set.

Always take the bidding into account before determining the opening lead. Obviously, one big question is whether you and your partner have bid during the auction. If Partner has opened the bidding or overcalled, you know you should be planning to establish tricks Partner's hand, especially if the contract is being played in NT. Lead Partner's suit. If Partner has overcalled 1H and you hold doubleton K or Q of H, you are going to lead that doubleton honor, whether you are defending a suit contract or NT.

A brief digression: Whenever possible, interject a lead-directing bid or double into the auction if you can, and if it is safe to do so. For example, if you have the KQJx of D and the opponents have bid and raised spades, and are now in Blackwood, you can double a 5D response to 4NT to get an opening D lead from Partner. Of course, if you are going to be the hand on lead, that double is useless.

However, if Partner has not bid that suit, leading high-low from a doubleton honor in the hope of getting a quick ruffing trick is one of the worst leads in Bridge – unless you can stop trumps. Even if you hold Qx, there is a good possibility that Declarer has AJ or KJ – and will attempt finesse. You throw away a possible trick with no realistic hope of a ruff – if you have 3 little trumps, they'll be drawn before you can ruff. And if you lead high-low from a doubleton holding with a natural trump trick, you make a bad trade. Let's say you have 10x of D and KQx of S behind A in declarer's hand. You lead the 10 of D and partner takes the K and Ace and leads back a third D for you to ruff. Wonderful. You were going to get 2 spade tricks anyway. Now Declarer can draw trumps in 2 rounds instead of 3, and your K or Q will fall to the Ace. Now dummy will have an extra trump to ruff a loser in Declarer's hand.

If you have bid and Partner has passed, you have to plan on establishing your own hand – or to get Partner a ruffing trick: you know Partner is weak…and quite possibly short in your suit. If you hold this hand, defending against 4S: S: A3 H: Axxxx D: Kxxx C: x And the auction has gone: (RHO) 1D – (you) 1H – 1S – pass – 2S – pass – 4S

Some players would automatically lead their singleton C here, but I think that is a bad lead. In the first place, you probably have 3 tricks in your hand – you need one from partner. Wouldn't Partner have raised H with 3 to an honor, or bid 2C with a good 5- or 6-card suit? It sounds as though dummy is going to be short in D, and will come down with perhaps 10-12 HCP. You have 10, and Declarer has 11-14. So partner has something like 4-7 HCP. You are pretty sure Declarer has eight cards in S and D, leaving 5 in C and H. So you are picturing partner with a holding something like this:

If you lead your singleton club, Declarer gets the lead and draws trumps. You are in with the Ace. Now if partner holds hand (b) or (c), you lead Ace and another H and Partner is in to return a club. That's cool – maybe. If Partner has hand (b), it's entirely possible that Declarer also has a singleton C and will ruff higher than your 3 spot – you never get that ruff. But if Partner has hand (a), you are cooked, no matter what. There is no way to get to Partner before Declarer draws your little trump.

No matter which of these hands Partner has, your best chance to set the contract is to lead the Ace of H. If you see that Dummy has 4 cards in H, you'll check Partner's – and Declarer's – play to trick 1. Either Partner or Declarer must be singleton, and I'll leave it to you to figure out which one, and how.

If Dummy comes down with 3 cards in H, you still should be able to recognize a singleton in partner's hand. For example, the 2 would have to either be singleton or the bottom of K2 (you have discounted the possibility that Partner holds Kxx, and partner would play high-low from 2 small). Either way, your next lead is a low H. Partner will either win the HK or get a ruff.

Now if dummy comes down with 2 cards in H, you can assume Partner also has 2 (or 1) and can ruff the third H behind dummy. Again, your next lead is a low H. You will get in with the Ace of S and bang another H immediately.

Use the bidding to determine where each of the opponents is strong or weak. There is a huge difference between this auction:

1H – pass – 1NT – pass – 2S – pass – 2NT – pass – 3NT

and this one:

1NT – pass – 2C – pass – 2D – pass – 3NT.

Okay – Partner hasn't bid, and the opponents are playing 3NT. However, in the first case, the NT Declarer has a terribly weak hand. His/her Partner (who is about to be dummy) has bid H and reversed to S, showing a hand of 17+ with 5 cards in H and 4 in S. You can assume that Declarer has at least 8 cards in the minor suits, and that neither one is solid or 6 long. I'd figure Declarer for 2-3 spades, 1-2 hearts, and 4-4 or 5-4 in the minors. Partner didn't have the hand to overcall 1S (or 2C or 2D) over 1H. If my hand were also weak, I'd guess that Partner has hearts – if I had a small doubleton or singleton heart I would lead it here!

In the second situation, Declarer is the strong hand, the one who opened 1NT. But responder is no slouch (10+ HCP), and has one – or both – of the major suits. This is a tough position to lead from, and I would choose something solid if possible, avoiding a lead from a minor-suit tenace. However, if I were 5 long or longer in either major, that's what I'd choose, hoping to find both declarer and dummy short and to knock out their controls immediately.