The opening lead can be the most difficult lead in the whole game - and the most critical. When you are choosing your opening lead, you have only thirteen cards to contemplate and the auction to guide you, whereas for every other lead more than twice as many cards are known. A shrewd opening lead may provide a greater chance of successful defence than any card played at a later stage.

This superb book shows how to predict the way the play will probably develop and what, therefore, is likely to be the best opening lead. The authors' consistent aim is to encourage the player to gather all the threads of information helpful in deciding what may be the crucial card to lead. And, for good measure, this guidance is amplified by a generous number of expert tips unlikely to be known to most players.