What are you waiting for, man? Make a pass............
....ive lead! One day you're gonna hold something like this:

K93

AQ65

753

A83

It's your lead! The spades suit is eliminated right off the bat so you're reduced to either leading the hearts away from your Ace-Queen or banging down the Ace of clubs -- grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Both wrong possibly! If the bid is 11 or higher, leading anything but a diamond is criminal, with one teensy "Gotcha!" If you're playing with dimwits maybe the Ace of clubs is right. Ok, so some of you again will piss and moan that the diamond takes tricks away from pard right, but I say "Poppycock!"

Trapping Your Partner's King

Say pard holds K106 and that the next player is holding either AQ, AJ, or A10. Any of these combinations basically have the effect of neutralizing pard's King. As a matter of fact pard's King is just about cooked unless the Ace sits in front of it. Pard may get upset with you for making a lead such as this but at any good table his King is dead meat in any case.

However, if you have Ace-grabbers playing at your table I would possibly consider not leading the diamond simply because they are going to quickly lead their Aces and Kings gallantly collecting the 2's, 3's , and 4's.

Keep in mind once again the purpose of making a passive lead is primarily to avoid giving away a trick with your hand. Bust pards! If the Ace sits over his King so be it! He shouldn't have bid on the dang thing anyway.

The Active Lead

Here's an example of an attacking lead that quickly develops a trick but at a heavy price.

North Q 8 4 West A 10 4 2 East J 9 7 South K 6 3

You're brilliant enough to make the attacking lead of the 3 of clubs and watch what happens when Lefty flies up with the Ace. Wowowowow your side's King and Queen are now good.

Watch what is going to happen to you at my table. Your opening lead is the 3 and I am playing either the 4 or the 2....your pard plays the Q winning the trick and I still sit over your K6 with my A10, scoring three tricks in the club suit now if spades are removed on this hand.

If you make some passive lead instead and force me to bust the clubs myself you will make your King and Queen. The only way we can stop you from getting two clubs tricks is when clubs are led from my partner's hand so I can finesse for the King and Queen. By repeating this finesse I can bring in the clubs with only one loser.

Why is any of this important? Well, a 12-bid is on the table and your pard has picked up an unexpected Queen of hearts when the suit split 4-3-3-3. Now don't you agree getting two club tricks is going to be worth a passle of points? Just for playing smart and passive!

Regards,
Ruffkid1 (Jay Tomlinson)