Desperation - Bottom Up

Sometimes a hand is so bad that a desperate looking lead can be made with no risk. Usually this happens in a hand that was almost respectfully declined (section 2.2).

	taker
$\spadesuit$	9 3
$\heartsuit$	A K 4 3
$\diamondsuit$	A 2
$\clubsuit$	4 3
	fig. 4

In this hand the taker has three suits blocked from the bottom. If spades are also blocked from the bottom then the hand is impossible. Therefore, if it is possible to make this hand the giver must have at least three spades and must have the $\spadesuit$2.

The convention here is that when the taker has three suits blocked from the bottom, then he leads the fourth suit from the bottom up. He does this regardless of how many cards he may have in that suit.

In the hand above the taker would open with the sequence $\spadesuit$3 $\spadesuit$9.

	taker
$\spadesuit$	9 5 3
$\heartsuit$	A K Q 4 3
$\diamondsuit$	2
$\clubsuit$	2
	fig. 5

In this more extreme example the proper opening sequence is $\spadesuit$3 $\spadesuit$5 $\spadesuit$9. Interestingly, this lead risks absolutely nothing, because if the giver cannot play under each of these three cards, then the hand is impossible. In fact, to be able to make the hand the giver must have a fourth spade which she will now save to the bitter end.

To better understand why these hands would be impossible please see the section on blocked hands (section 7).