Leading against NT

[hanp]

I lead Rusinov with strong king.

[bluecalm]

A good rule is only to discard when you are out of the suit that's led.

 

Yeah, thanks for correcting me there. I should've used "what do you play".

[junyi_zhu]

My question is out of interest in how common one or the other is. This is yet another thing where I thought I knew what the standard is...

 

If you care to provide reasons why your chosen method is superior, please do!

I played Rusnow for a while, then I found that I sometimes forgot the convention which may lead to bigger disasters, so now I just stick with the standard treatment. Q from KQ is quite counter-intuitive to me...

[aguahombre]

I lead Rusinov with strong king.

Roger's post was the most compelling for strong King, and I agree with you that, if you do that, you have to switch to rusinow.

 

Wonder if I am too old to change and remember.

[blackshoe]

If I remember correctly, "the Journalist" recommended Rusinow leads against suits, but not against NT.

[Siegmund]

If I remember correctly, "the Journalist" recommended Rusinow leads against suits, but not against NT.

 

Yes, Journalist vs. NT was A for count/unblock, K standard, Q standard (+KQT9), J denies, T from both AT9/KT9 and AJT/KJT, 9 from T9.

 

My admittedly fuzzy memory of 50s and 60s era bridge books is that Journalist was the START of using A for count/unblock against notrump, and that one idea from Journalist became standard (but the ten and nine leads never achieved the popularity of ancient-standard or of zero-or-two-higher.)

[Gerben42]

As I understand it, the "strong Ace" convention means:

 

AKJT

KQT9

QJ98

 

which is what I play. Otherwise simply high from (inner) sequences.

[peachy]

A good rule is only to discard when you are out of the suit that's led.

 

Yeah, thanks for correcting me there. I should've used "what do you play".

"play" covers all of "lead", "discard", and "follow suit"

[Finch]

To echo a couple of things already said:

 

A/Q for attitude, King for unblock/count is virtually universal among good English players, and seems to be exactly the opposite to North American practice.

 

You can't stop with your A & K leads you have to consider the lower cards as well.

 

FWIW I play something my partner taught me which he claimed was derived from a Rubens book:

 

- A for attitude on the queen (you might encourage with other holdings depending on dummy, the auction etc)

 

- King for ublock or failing that for count

 

- Q from a weak KQ holding or a strong QJ holding, initially expecting attitude on the jack (with a strong QJ holding such as QJ109 you don't need attitude on lower honours, and partner knows they can overtake with the king)

 

- J from a weak QJ holding or a strong J10 holding, same logic as queen leads

 

- 10 strong, from an interior sequence. Although we are probably about to stop playing strong 10s, because they seem on average to help declarer more often than the defence.

 

- pip leads attitude (not relevant to the original questions)

 

The "weak" Q and J leads both tell partner whether it is safe to unblock with the next card up, and allow you to lead an honour from holdings such as QJxxx against a 2NT opening, or KQ9xx, even KQ8x without fearing too much honour unblocking from partner.