3rd and 5th leads: Bridge Article.

3rd and 5th leads.

Over the years there I has been a tug of war between 4th best leads vs 3rd and 5th. Experts have argued which lead convention is better. The latest consensus among experts at the national level is that they both are! 3rd and 5th best lead are better against suit contracts and 4th best against NT contracts. In suit contracts, it is important to know that partner's low card lead is 3rd or 5th for cash out purposes, switches and planning your defense. It is less important in suit contracts that you “burn spot cards” by leading your 2nd lowest card to show 4 of the suit.

In NT, when you waste spot cards on your opening lead with 4 of them, it can often be fatal. Also the rule of 11 in NT contracts is invaluable in knowing what is going on with the suit. Bryan Maksysmetz knew that I played 4th best with Tom and 3rd and 5th with some partners. Therefore, he suggested that we should be a switch hitter in this regard. He says most top level players alternate between suit and NT contracts with 3rd and 5th best leads. I can see the advantages now that I play both lead conventions with my two regular partners.

Playing 3rd and 5th best with some partners, has opened my eyes on the importance of differentiating between 3 to an honour lead as opposed to 4 of an honour in suit contracts. With standard 4th best, you cannot tell the difference which can be fatal in suit contracts. In NT contracts, 3 card suits are hardly ever good opening leads except when demanded by the bidding, so partner can normally work it out anyway from the distribution given by the bidding. Ambiguity is the killer in Bridge and 3rd and 5th solves one of the worst guesses in Bridge.

BJ Trelford switched me to 3rd and 5th best leads. In my and obviously his opinion, these are superior to 4th best for suit contracts. From the lead you know immediately whether the lead is from a suit with an odd number or an even number. If it’s the lowest spot card around, partner has 3, 5 or 7 of them. If it’s a higher spot, the “rule of 12” comes into effect and you know partner has an even number in the suit.

Here is an example where a 3rd best lead and the rule of 12 works better than 4th best. Partner leads the 7 of spades in a 4 Heart contract and the spades are Spade 1095 on the board and you have Spade A8x. Declarer can not have very long spades from the bidding so the 7 can not be a doubleton or singleton. Subtract 7 from 12 and there are 5 higher. You see the ten and the nine and you have the Ace and the 8. Therefore declarer as only one card that can beat it! You win the Ace and return the suit and you cash 3 spades as partner started with Spade KJ74. What if partner led 4th best? You subtract 4 from 11 and there are 7 higher and you only see 5 of them. Maybe your diamond queen shift is better as declarer may have the Spade KQ? You shift to a diamond and declarer discards his spade losers on his club suit. OOPS !

Bridge players do not like ambiguity. Knowing that a very low card is 3rd or 5th is a valuable asset. Like all changes, it cost BJ Trelford a bushel full of IMPS until my old brain got used to it. Now I will not change back. 3rd and 5th is just plain better when making “count showing” leads.

Most experts play "present count" instead of original count. When you are returning a suit in NT as opposed to a suit, you are playing 4th best (present count). In a suit contract, you are returning 3rd and 5th (present count) after already playing one. Discards are always present count. This present count treatment is Bridge World Standard.

In a NT contract, if you had K9752 and won the King, return your 4th best the deuce (present count). In a suit contract, you would return your 2nd lowest from 4 (present count).

You have K972, you win your king and return the deuce (present count in a suit showing 3). In NT, you would return the 7 (MUD) when you play that treatment otherwise top of nothing with three. If you started with 3 to an honour your present count in both NT and a suit contract is the same a doubleton, so no problem.

My partner against 3NT led 4th best from J10xx and AQ was on the board. I won the king from K9752 so I returned the deuce (present count showing 4). Partner now just applies a pattern 5-4-2-2 so knows to unblock with a spade honour so I can get my 5th spade to beat the contract. If I had an original K2, I would switch as I know we are attacking declarer's 5 card suit. In a suit contract, unblocking is probably irrelevant.

Some more hints I got from Maksymetz in discussing players defensive carding at the national level. Smith echoes are only useful in NT contracts. In suit contracts, if you cannot beat dummy’s card, Bryan suggests suit preference rather than count. It’s obviously not attitude, when you cannot beat dummy's honour card (Ace and King excluded) so he feels suit preference is more useful than count in suit contracts only.

Bryan has strong opinions on “coded 9’s and 10’s”. He says they give too much information on the opening lead but use them during the middle of the hand helps the defense more than declarer. During the middle of the hand, it is more important to show whether you have a real interior sequence switch. Anyway these views are just his opinions.