MINIBRIDGE
- bridge for children and beginners -

LESSON 7 - OPENING LEAD 1

Congratulations with your certificate for LESSON 6. Ready for LESSON 7?

WHAT WILL WE LEARN IN THIS LESSON OF MINIBRIDGE?

• What is a sequence?
• Lead with the top of a sequence!
• Reaction of partner.
• Play minibridge.
• The minibridge quiz.

WHAT IS A SEQUENCE?

If we only have Aces and Kings, than minibridge is very simple, but that is rarely so. We therefore need agreements to make many tricks. To learn our first playing technique, we first tell you what a sequence is.

First sort your cards by suit and within each suit from high to low. If you have three cards in a suit that directly follow each other, then you have a sequence. We only pay attention to sequences that have at least a Jack as the highest card.

Which sequences do we have?

• ♠AKQ is a sequence
• ♥KQJ is a sequence
• ♣QJ98 is a broken sequence
• ♦76 is not high enough at too short to be a sequence

A long sequence is better than a short one. A broken sequence is still a sequence, but not as strong.

The cards of a sequence have something special: they have same value. If you have ♥ KQJ, you could choose, because they are equally strong! We don't do this in minibridge. Below you can read why.

LEAD WITH THE TOP OF A SEQUENCE

In minibridge we have an important rule:

Lead with the highest card of a sequence!

Through that RULE we tell something to our partner:

Leading with a high card promises possession of the card just below it! !

An example for more clarity: you have ♥ KQJ. Leading with ♥ K promises ♥Q and you also deny ♥A, because otherwise you would have led with ♥A.

With this playing technique you force the opponent to go above your card. This can make the second card of your sequece the highest card in the remaining game.

REACTION OF PARTNER?

Your partner must help you as much as possible. How does he do that?

After leading with a high card, your partner will try, as soon as it is his turn, to lead with a low card in the same suit as the high card of his partner.

Below an example of such a collaboration.

Discussion

• Trick 1: South takes with ♥A. Unavoidable!
• Trick 2: East takes with ♠A.
• Trick 3: East returns with ♥ (RULE) an East plays ♥Q.
• Trick 4 and 5: West can make 2 tricks in ♥.
• Trick 6:The last trick goes to North.

The EW-team takes 4 tricks. If the EW-team don't use this rule, than the NS-team makes more tricks in spades.

PLAY MINIBRIDGE

If you want to practice this playing technique the highest of a sequence, then take that 24 cards (the spades and the hearts without ♥ 2 and ♠ 2). Give ♥ KQJ76 and ♠ 4 to West. East gets ♠ A. Divide the other cards so that each player gets 6 cards. West may lead!

THE MINIBRIDGE QUIZ

Answer the questions below. If you have all the questions correct, then you get the minibridge LESSON 7 certification and then you are ready for LESSON 8 of our minibridge course.

Here are the questions of our minibridge quiz.

1. West leads witht ♣Q - North plays ♣A! WHAT DOES EAST KNOW NOW? West has ♣J West doesn't have ♣K West has ♣J en not ♣K East knows nothing
2. a) 54321 b) AQJ84 c) QJ104 d) KQJ73 e) 9874. WHERE DO WE HAVE A SEQUENCE? c) d) a) c) d) b) c) d) c) d) e)
3. West must lead and has ♥KQB2 ♣A7? WHAT WILL BE THE OPENING LEAD OF WEST? WEST plays ♣A WEST plays ♣7 WEST plays ♥2 WEST plays ♥K
4. North led trick 1 with ♦K. West won that trick with ♦A.
   South may lead now and has ♥A ♦52. SOUTH WILL LEAD WITH? ZUID plays ♦5 ZUID plays ♦2 ZUID plays ♥A ZUID plays ♣7