You're the Leader, Partner Trivia Quiz

Answer: The player to the declarer's left

In bridge, the side who makes the final bid becomes the offense while the other side is the defense. The offensive player who first named the suit of the final bid becomes the declarer and the defender to the left chooses a card from their hand as the opening lead. On average, this is generally considered the hardest and most important play of the entire hand.

The two of clubs is the first card led in the game hearts, not bridge.

Answer: False

Once the opening lead is made, the player to the leader's left lays down his whole hand for the other three players to see and becomes the dummy. Dummy's partner, the declarer, plays both of his side's hands for the rest of the deal, leaving dummy's unplayed cards in exposed for all to see. So the second card is played from the hand to the opening leader's left but not by the player who originally held that hand.

Answer: Play a card in the same suit as the lead

One of the cardinal rules in bridge is that you must play a card in the same suit as the one that was led if you have one. If you don't have a card in that suit you can play any card including a trump. When each hand plays a card it is called a trick.

The highest trump played (with aces high) wins the trick. If no trumps are played then the highest card in the suit led wins. Thus if a spade is led, you have no spades, and hearts are trump, you can play the two of hearts to beat the aces of spades your opponent played!

Answer: The player who won the previous trick

The winner of each trick leads to the next. The declarer has to lead from the hand that won the previous trick. Thus if the trick was won in dummy, dummy is the leader to the next trick while if the declarer wins in his hand, he plays the first card to the next trick from that hand.

There are advantages and disadvantages to being the leader. Besides the obvious advantage that it means your side won the last trick, the leader gets to choose which suit to lead. However, since the other side gets to play last to the next trick, they have the advantage of knowing which card is the cheapest they can win the trick with (if any) and thus save their higher cards for later.

Answer: Either defender

Either defender is allowed to accept the lead from the wrong hand but they are not allowed to consult each other. If one wants to accept the lead and the other does not, the defender who is next to play if the lead is accepted has precedence. As a matter of fact, she can just accept by playing a card, regardless of her partner's opinion. Note that there is no penalty to declarer for playing from the wrong hand except for this additional option the defenders have (to force him to play out of the hand they want first).

Answer: Refuse to accept the lead and lead a card from his own hand

The declarer actually has several options if a defender leads out of turn. Two of the options are very similar, he can require or forbid the suit that was illegally led to be played by the proper leader. Alternatively, he can allow the proper leader to lead any card and tell the defender who led out of turn that she has to play the card she led at the first legal opportunity. Finally, he can accept the lead. If it is the opening lead that is made out of turn he also has the option of accepting the lead, laying down his own hand as dummy and letting partner be declarer.

Some people say it is usually a good idea to accept a lead out of turn since if your opponent isn't paying enough attention to know that it's not her turn, she probably isn't paying enough attention to know what the best thing to do is.

Answer: Eleven minus the value of the card that was led

This is called the rule of eleven. Since the thirteen cards in a suit effectively rank two through fourteen, if a player leads her fourth best, there are fourteen minus that spot higher in the deck, three of which are in her hand and the remaining eleven minus that spot in the other three players' hands.

This information can be very useful to the leader's partner since she can see how many of those higher cards are in dummy and how many are in her own hand which leaves the remainder in declarer's hand. This will often help that player know how high a card she needs to play at trick one.

Answer: True

When leading a suit with two cards there are two reasons to play high then low. First is that this is a way for your partner to know you have exactly two cards since most of the time when you have three or more you start with one of the small ones. This will help partner count how many cards you have in all suits which will make it easier to defend.

The other reason for leading the higher card is that it may help protect partner's high cards in the suit. When you play your high card, she won't have to play hers. Since she is likely to have more cards in the suit than you, hers may be valuable later when you have nothing left in that suit.

Answer: Second highest

MUD stands for Middle-Up-Down so you start with the middle card, then play your highest one next time, and your lowest one third.

This is not a convention I would recommend as it takes awhile for partner to figure out your holding, but it does have a cool name. Most experts lead their lowest from three small.

Answer: King of Spades

Your goal is to make your opponent take his ace of spades while you still have one or both of the other kings as an entry. Therefore you want to lead spades first to get your suit started before declarer can start on his. You want to lead one of the high spades rather than a low one to prevent declarer from winning cheaply with the ten.