D10 CARD PLAY CONVENTIONS

OPENING LEADS - Which Suit ?

a) No Trumps;

'Good' Leads
- Partner's bid suit

- Your longest suit

- An unbid suit

- Avoid
Leading their bid suits

b) Suit Contracts;

'Good' Leads
- A K combinations (to have a look at dummy) e.g. A K 3 2

- Leads which set up a trick e.g. Q J 10 9, J 10 9 8

- Partner's bid suit

- A 'Singleton' to seek to trump the suit later

- A trump (to stop declarer trumping your tricks in dummy)

- An unbid suit

Avoid
- Leading their bid suits, particularly if bid on your right

- Underleading an ace (to stop declarer making cheap tricks, e.g. singleton K)

- Leading from 'tenace' combinations, e.g. A J 10, K J 10, K J 3 2

OPENING LEADS- Which card?

Basic method; Ace from AK, fourth highest and MUD (middle up down) from 3 small cards.

a) Top of 'touching' honour combinations.( Honours are A, K, Q, J, 10 of a suit. Honours are 'touching' when they are adjacent in rank)

e.g. A K Q 3, K Q 10 3, K J 10 9, Q J 9 8 , K 10 9 8

b) Top of doubletons

e.g. J 2, 10 8, 7 2.

c) 4th highest of a suit (counted from the top) with no 'touching' honour combinations

e.g. K 7 6 2, Q 8 7 4 2, J 6 5 2, K J 9 7 4 2

d) With three cards to an unsupported honour, Lead a low card

e.g. K 7 2, Q 8 3, J 6 2, K 10 4

e) Middle, up, down from 3 small cards

e.g. with 9 5 2 lead the 5, then follow with the 9, then play the 2.

WHEN PLAYING HONOURS IN THIRD POSITION

Third player nearly always plays high to promote a trick in partner's hand.

With 'touching' cards, play the lowest 'touching' card from a sequence when following to a trick to help partner work out where the rest of the cards are, for example,.

When partner leads a suit and you have K Q 10 2, play the Queen;

When partner leads a suit and you have A K 3 2 play the King;

When partner leads a suit and you have J 10 9 8 7, play the 7.

WHEN YOU HAVE A DOUBLETON

With 2 cards in a non trump suit, play 'Hi-Lo' i.e. highest card first then lowest.

If partner might find it useful, play hi/lo also with 4 cards in the suit.

WHEN YOU WANT PARTNER TO CONTINUE THE SUIT

If you like partner's lead, play a high card, 'Hi encourage' 'Lo discourage'. This will tell partner whether to continue the suit or switch to another.

WHEN YOU WANT PARTNER TO SWITCH TO ANOTHER SUIT

When discarding on declarers or partner's suit, play a big card of a suit you want led Throw low cards from suits you are not interested in.