Blum on Bridge ... a multitude of sins
	Rather then dwell on any particular subject I shall cover, in no specific order, a multitude of sins that occur at the bridge table. If indeed suggestions are needed to correct certain problems, I will follow up the situation with an explanation. Defenders that lead and under-lead aces make me as declarer salivate. More times than not it will not only give declarer at least an extra trick but it throws off the defender's timing. No adage is more appropriate in this case than "Aces are to take kings and queens, not twos and threes." A possible exception may be when lho has opened 1NT and you are on lead. It's possible that dummy (lho) could hold KJxx and partner holds Qx. Imagine the converse where rho holds Kx and partner has QJxx. Yech! Unless you are expert you and partner should agree that as defenders when either of you are on lead any time during the hand if your partner cannot either win the trick or force fourth hand to win the trick with an honor, he should give attitude. Attitude simply says whether or not you like the suit. A classic example is when partner leads the king and you hold A853, play the 8 asking partner to continue. Without an honor you would discourage partner by playing low, in this case the 3. On the other hand when declarer leads you and partner should agree to give each other count as discussed last week. Simply put high-low shows an even number in the suit and low-high indicates an odd number of cards in the played suit. Should you wish to give partner count in the trump suit (only right when you want to trump in later) low-high shows an even number and high-low shows an odd number, the opposite of a non-trump suit. Please try to anticipate what is going on in the hand so that you can either play or bid smoothly. Hesitations can kill you. A good declarer has table feel and can locate cards he needs by your movements. This is not cheating but having a mastery of the game. I will give you a few examples. As dealer you hold x-Akxx-KQxx-Kxxx. What is partner's probable response after your opening bid of one of your four-card suits? With 12 spades in the other three hands the probability is high that pard will bid the spade suit. You hold A953. Dummy on your left has KJ. As soon as you see the dummy you should know declarer would eventually lead up to the doubleton. Plan early to play low when the suit is led. Your smooth play may well cause declarer to play the jack and allow partner to win the trick with his queen. A hesitation would cause declarer to play the king thereby limiting your side to one trick in the suit. Leading trumps is mandatory when declarer can either crossruff or ruff in his short suit. Clues are found in the bidding sequence. If the opponents are playing in their third or fourth bid suit it indicates shortness. South 1 diamond-North 1 heart-South 1 spade-North-4 spades. South's hand could be AKJx-xx-Axxxx-xx opposite North Q1098-Axxx-Jx-KQx. Continually leading trump each time you win a trick prevents South from making his contract. Another time to lead trump even advanced players fail to recognize. On lead against four spades you hold A62-KJ54-7-AQ963. How many of you would lead your singleton diamond? Think about it. You have 14 hcps. How many can partner possibly have? How about none! Thus, partner can never get the lead to give you a ruff. The lead from one of your two tenaces may lose a trick so the safest lead is the trump suit. Many duplicate players use a bidding convention called "Flannery." An opening bid of 2 diamonds shows five hearts, four spades and 11-15 hcps. Should either spades or hearts be the final contract shortness is indicated in the minors. The opener should lead trump to prevent the declarer from ruffing. Last but not least here's a good one for you declarers to remember. A player who preempts usually has a singleton. If he's on lead and does not lead it, it probably is in the trump suit. Play accordingly.