Page 4 - Leads Against Notrump

4
The Impact of Opening Leads Against Notrump Contracts
How the Defenders Take Tricks
In addition to taking sure tricks, the Defenders’ Checklist for
developing tricks in a notrump contract is the same as Declarer’s
Checklist. Defenders get extra tricks through:
The longest suit in the defenders’ combined hands will
usually offer the best potential for developing the most number
of tricks in one of these three ways. With no help from the
auction, however, the opening leader doesn’t know which is the
longest combined suit. So the guideline is to choose the longest
suit in the opening leader’s hand and hope that it is the best suit
to develop tricks for the partnership. Consider each of these
three ways in turn.
Defender’s Checklist
• Promotion
• Length
• The Finesse