Does anyone know who
the opening leader is?

I am, dear, because
Sharon's the
only one who
bid anything,
so surely
she is the
declarer!

Well done,
Wilma. What
are you going
to lead?

I'm going to
lead a club.
Didn't you
say we
should lead
from an
ace-king when
we have it?

I did say that, Wilma, and
that is true when you are
leading against a suit
contract -- when spades,
hearts, diamonds or clubs
are trumps. Against notrump,
there is a different
opening-lead strategy.

When a hand is played at
notrump, the idea is to set
up a long suit. Sometimes
your longest suit is only
four-cards long, but
sometimes it's longer. I
want everybody to tell me
which suit is his long
suit, starting with Sharon.

What if you
have two suits
that are the
same length?
How do you
know which
one to lead?

Good question, Sharon. If
you have two suits that
are the same length, you
lead the stronger one.
For example:

In this hand, the heart and
diamond suits are the same
length. The hearts are
headed by the jack, but
the diamonds are headed
by the king, so you would
lead a diamond.

Which heart
should I
lead?

Wilma, you
have touching honors, which
we learned
about in
lesson 3, so
you should
lead the top
of the
sequence,
the jack. But
suppose your
hearts were:

J 8 6 5 2

Now you would lead the 5.
Why the 5? Because there
is a Golden Rule in bridge,
that when you lead against
notrump and you don't have
a sequence, you lead
fourth from your
longest and strongest.

Let's examine this
suit closely:

J 8 6 5 2

J 8 6 5 2

The jack is the first card,
the 8 is second, the 6
is third, and the 5 is
the fourth best.

To review, Wilma would lead
the 5 if she had a "broken
suit" (i.e., no sequence).
But Wilma has a sequence,
so she leads the jack.

Now class,
how many
tricks does
Sharon need
to take in
order to
make her
contract?

Very good.
A one-level
contract
means you
have to take
six tricks
(book) plus
one. Sharon,
how many
tricks do
you have
off the top?

Right. So
you need to
develop a
seventh trick.
Does anyone
have any
ideas?

Can she do
the same
thing we're
doing on
defense? Lead
her long suit?

Cool!

Let's try it!

Sharon, before you play
a card from dummy,
what's your plan?

I'm going to
do what
Wilma says.
I'm going to
win the heart
with my ace
and play ...

Wilma, what
will you play
on the jack-
of-clubs lead?

I'm going to
play the 5
because my
partner has
the queen.

That's true, but in real life,
you can't see your partner's
cards, so you don't know
where the queen is.
Perhaps declarer has it!

This dummy
business is
driving me
nuts. Mind if
I ask a
question?

Of course not, Norm.
This is only practice.

Well, without
peeking,
Wilma doesn't
know who has
the queen.
How does
she know
what to
do then?

This is one of the mysteries
that makes bridge so much
fun. We often don't know
where the cards are. Here's
a good tip:

OK, then
I play the 5.

And I get to
win the queen!

Earl, what
are you
going to
lead at
trick three?

The queen
of diamonds!

Why?

Because it's
my longest
suit and I
have touching
honors!

This would
be true if
you were on
opening lead.
But partner
has started
the defense
with a heart
lead. It's
usually best
to continue
the same
attack.

In order to set up tricks for
your side, you need to have
patience. Yes, dummy has the
king and queen left, but you
can knock them out!

Sharon, the
lead is in
dummy. What
is your
next play?

Excellent!
That means
Wilma will
win the trick
with her king.
Now what
will you
play, Wilma?

Well I'm
going to play
yet another
round of
hearts!

Well done. Sharon has to
win the heart lead with
dummy's king. Now the hand
looks like this, with
dummy to lead:

Good,
Sharon.

Hey! This is like a tug of
war! One side keeps leading
hearts and the other side
keeps leading clubs.

Earl, look at Wilma's
hand and what do you see?

I see that my partner can cash the 9 and 7 of hearts! Cool!

Cool is right! Does
everyone see this? There
are no more hearts left
except in Wilma's hand.
Her hearts finally
became good!

Wilma cashes her hearts
and Sharon should discard
the 3 and 7 of spades on
these two tricks. She
keeps her winners and
throws her losers.

Wilma scored her heart
tricks, but Sharon is in a
good position. No matter
what Wilma leads next,
Sharon has the rest of the
tricks. How many tricks
did your partner take
altogether, Norm?

Well, she took
the six that
she started
with, plus
she "set up"
two club
tricks for a
total of eight.
She made
her contract
plus one.

We call that extra trick
an "overtrick." Don't you
think you should
congratulate your partner?

Sure. Well
done, partner!

(Blushing)
Thank you,
partner.

OK, class, we learned a lot
today. Now let's look at
the hand record. Professor.

I'm here. Roll over the table
to see all the tricks played
and while it's loading, see
if you can follow the tricks
mentally.

Claims means you show
your hand and tell everyone
you have the rest of the
tricks. If you have sure
winners left, there's no
point in wasting time by
playing them one at a time.

True, but be very careful
about this! If you make a
mistake and you don't
really have all the rest of
the tricks, you'll have to
put your hand on the table
face up and the defenders
can see what your
remaining cards are and
the play will continue!

In this end position
Sharon was able to claim,
because her hand was high.
There is no way she can
lose any tricks, so she
shows her hand and says,
" I have the rest."

OK, it's time for the quiz.
I hope you enjoyed our
Hand Study course. We have
played through two complete
hands in these lessons. The
next course I'm teaching is
on the subject of scoring,
and I hope to see you there!