Page 25 - ABF Newsletter April 2025

Lead face down – and wait
Jan Peach
At the recent Gold Coast Congress, I lost count of the number of director calls for faced opening leads made by the wrong defender. These can be worth several tricks to declarer, perhaps even allowing an otherwise impossible contract to make. They also invoke several options which Law 10C1 requires the director to explain, so that presumed declarer may make an informed decision. That takes time.
Players should understand why the opening lead is made face down. Law 41A says so, and the ABF as Regulating Authority for national events has not reg- ulated otherwise. Partner and the presumed declarer may review the auction and/or ask questions as per Law 41B at this time. Law 20 has more to say on re- viewing the auction and the timing of questions.
Law 20C1 says, “After the final pass either defender has the right to ask if it is his opening lead (see Laws 47E and 41).” Confirmation in no way negates the requirement to place the opening lead face down.
There is no point to placing the card face down, mo- mentarily, before turning it over. The opening leader does best to sit and wait for partner to confirm he has no questions before facing the card. Partner might say, “No questions,” or “Thanks partner,” or anything that indicates that he is happy for the lead to be faced. Some opening leaders ask whether there are
any questions, thereby catering for both partner and the presumed declarer, and being more in tune with Law 41B. Some assume, at some small risk, that the presumed declarer has had enough time to speak up when partner has confirmed he is happy for the lead to be faced.
Suppose misinformation comes to light, perhaps through a failure to alert. Providing an opening lead has not been faced, Law 21B1(a) may be applied in limited circumstances to re-open an auction.
It is important to call the director before correcting explanations or making late alerts. Even if the prob- lem occurred too far back to be fixed, the director has the opportunity to talk with one or more play- ers away from the table to find out what they would have done had such-and-such happened. Think- ing at this time is not influenced by the result or by knowing the position of important cards.
One bonus from following the correct procedure of placing the opening lead face down, is that the three other people at the table have a chance to say, “It’s not your lead.”
A bad habit is for leader’s partner to say, “Make the lead face down. I have a question.” Rather than open- ing that can of UI worms, far better to train partner to sit and wait.
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Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: April 2025
Page: 25