Ace from ace-king is Andrew’s favourite lead v suits

As the great Italian expert Benito Garozzo has said, “If you have an ace-king, you do not have a lead problem.” And so say all of us.

The reason why ace from an ace-king combination is always your best opening lead versus a suit contract is that it keeps all your options open. You get a free look at dummy plus a chance to see your partner’s card (he can signal whether or not he wants you to continue); and you still have the boss card in the suit.

The ace is a very helpful lead to partner, showing him the king (the convention being to lead top of an honour sequence). You would not normally lead an ace without the king (unless it was singleton, partner’s suit or a very high-level contract – say Five).

Versus 1 ♥ - 4 ♥, lead the underlined card from these three:

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣
Note on the first that you prefer ♠ A to the singleton ♦ 7 – you can always switch to ♦ 7 depending on what you see in dummy and the contents of trick one; leading ♠ A keeps all your options open. Lead ♦ 7, instead and declarer might win, draw your trumps, then run winners; you might never win your ♠ AK.

On the second, you prefer ♣ A from ♣ A-K to ♦ K from ♦ K-Q. On the third, you prefer ♦ A from ♦ A-K to ♠ Q from ♠ Q-J: the higher the sequence the better.

Note that versus a notrump contract you would lead a different card each time. You would lead ♣ J on the first, ♠ 7 on the second and ♣ 5 on the third.

West looked no further than ♥ A lead v our featured 4 ♠. A look at dummy told him not continue hearts nor to switch to diamonds. Instead, looking at the relatively weak clubs, West switched to ♣ J (top of two*). East beat ♣ K with ♣ A, cashed ♣ Q and followed with ♣ 10.

Whether declarer ruffed the third club with♠ A/♠ K (West would discard and score ♠ Q later) or ♠ 10 (his actual choice), West had to score ♠ Q (here, overruffing ♠ 10 with ♠ Q). Down one.

*Unusually, West would have to switch to ♣ J from ♣ Jxx
– to retain the lead if dummy ducked.