This is a bit of a marathon, isn't it !

Returning your partner's opening lead

Generally speaking, the card your partner has selected for her opening lead has been chosen for a specific reason. She has (carefully, you hope), chosen it above all others from the thirteen cards in her hand. It is not simply the one nearest her left thumb. The short answer to the question 'Should I return her lead' is 'Yes'. Clearly there are exceptions that we shall look at below but the least you can do is to take careful mental note of the card led, try and establish why it has been chosen, and if you find yourself on lead early in the play, ask yourself whether you should lead it back. Most of the time the answer will be in the affirmative.

The nature of partner's lead will differ between trump and no-trump contracts and we shall look at each in turn.

NO-TRUMP CONTRACTS

Most of the time, partner's lead will be based upon a long suit. It should be either the fourth highest (count down from the top), or or a high card if she holds three or more (K Q J 3 2, K 7 6 4, Q J 8 6 2, K J 10 3 2 etc). The object of the early play in this case is to to remove the high cards in this suit that may be held by declarer or dummy, so that partner may eventually take tricks with her small cards. Rarely would you ignore her view that this suit will give us tricks now or later. No-trumps is like a race (each side trying to establish their own long suit), and we have a head start with the opening lead. Usually we keep our head in front by persisting with this suit.

This could be a lead from a five-card suit (the two is missing). You must play the king (even if you have seen the ace in declarer's hand) and return the ten when you get the chance. Hopefully, partner has five of this suit headed by two of the ace, queen and jack.

You would take trick one with the ace and return the jack. Partner has four cards in this suit and you must clear your high cards out of the way early on so that when she gains the lead her tricks can be cashed.

The lead could be from a five-card suit. On taking trick one with the king, don't let the ace on the table deter you from continuing this suit. Hopefully, when the ace has gone, partner will have lots of tricks.

This could be a lead from a five-card suit or longer. On taking the first trick with the queen, the argument is the same as above: get rid of those high cards in dummy.

Partner has a sequence here. The ace may be held up, but your plan is to continue this suit as soon as you get a chance.

When declarer plays small from dummy, your first decision is whether to play your king or not. What do you think?

Who has the queen? This must surely be declarer. What do you think of your side's chances with this suit? Poor, I agree with you. So what should you do?

Play your king and switch to the king of hearts. This is not an occasion for continuing with partner's suit.

Partner has a sequence. If you don't play your ace on her king (overtaking) and then return the suit, you will block it on trick two, requiring an entry in another suit from partner (which she may not have) to continue this suit.

It's never quite so easy when dummy has an honour. You must decide whether you will play the king (probably setting up dummy's queen whether declarer has the ace or not), or play the ten which is just as good if partner has the jack. The latter is usually the preferred action in this no-trump contract. If the ace takes your ten, you want this suit continued later by your partner and not you. If your ten holds the trick you still want this suit led by partner.

Your eight holds the first trick. Clearly there is no future in this suit. Partner has led from something like K 6 5 3, quite reasonable until we saw dummy. This is one of the rare occasions when we should switch to another suit.

You must keep your eye open for those occasions when partner has not led her long suit. These could be when:-

• you have bid
• her suit has been bid by declarer or dummy and she is having a good guess at your suit
• she has such a rotten hand that even if she succeeded in setting up her long suit, she has no entries to reap the benefit. Here again she will be guessing at your suit.

You will know if your suit is worth pursuing or if partner's guess was a good one.

Partner has led this suit since you have bid it. Your jack wins the first trick. Clearly this is a good suit for you but it needs to be led again by partner otherwise you will give dummy a trick. You would only pursue this suit yourself now if you are absolutely sure that partner has no entries and equally sure that you have.

Your nine holds trick one. Good guess partner! Clearly you must press on with this suit at once until the ace has gone and then hopefully you have an outside entry to make tricks from the rest of this suit. Lead your king at trick two.

If this is fourth highest, then declarer only has one card (or none) in this suit--unlikely in a no-trump contract. It looks like a doubleton lead. You must play your queen but clearly this suit is a dead duck. When/If you get in you must try another suit.

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