What is the sole purpose of leading a singleton (excluding nil hands or bagging hands)?

It is certainly an attractive lead when your hand is basically semi weak to terribly weak and your trumps suck! The goal at hand is to basically chalk up ruffs (trump tricks). Wow, consider that, ruffs! How do we get a ruff? Either the opponents have to lead some suit we are out of, or pard must do it!

With that thought in mind partner might need a few entries to his/her hand to supply you with these ruffs you so terribly desire. If the bidding dictates that partner cannot possibly have these entries then you are clearly wasting your time trying to score one up unless the opponents are completely brain-dead!

For example: The opponents have bid 9, your pard has bid 1 and you have bid 2. How many times do you think he is going to get in the lead to give you a ruff?

Now if your trumps are strong and standing invincible (lol) leading a singleton is about as worthless as teats on a boar hog! With something like QJ109 why are you trying to ruff anything? You have two natural trump tricks. Don't you think you will be better off using your trumps to pull the opponents trumps as opposed to trumping with natural trump tricks?

A singleton lead can be very appealing from trump holdings such as A2, A32, or even K32. With holdings like this you have either 1st or 2nd round control and they cannot be pulled quickly. When you have two or three worthless trumps you may find that they get pulled before you score a ruff up.

When you have a great lead take it! Avoid dangerous leads when you do not have a great one! Eliminate those with a great risk factor. The riskiest being an Ace-high suit with (no King), leading from some doubleton picture card, or s singleton trump, or even possibly leading a 3- or 4-card suit with only one honor in the suit.

Any lead like those previously mentioned might work on a given day. These are the things that make the opening lead so tough! However, in the long run they should be avoided cause they cost you in trick taking and sets much more often than I am sure you will admit too.

When all else fails:

Try to lead a near sequence suit to an interior sequence suit! Hmm, what is that? KQ109 is a near sequence. They are almost solid vs. KJ109 that is an interior sequence.

Try to lead a suit with two honors vs. one with just one honor.

Get your hands on a suit with touching honors over a suit with broken honors.

KQxx is much better than KJxx. The KQ is an example of touching honors.

Lead a suit with only rags in it vs. one that has just one picture card!

A little ole rag doubleton is quite attractive with a weaker hand!

If you apply the concept mentioned regarding the singleton leads it is almost the same!

The weaker you hand is, the more desirable it is to lead off with a two-card suit. The weaker your hand is the greater chance pard has to hold the entries needed to give you ruffs. The stronger your hand becomes the less chance your pard will have to supply you with ruffs and the lead of a doubleton becomes very unattractive.

Regards,
Ruffkid1 (Jay Tomlinson)