Espositori

It is the first hand of a new game and you are the dealer.  You turned up the , and your partner liked it and ordered it up naming diamonds as trump.  Unfortunately you didn't have any of those!  Oh well, the player to your left lead out with the , your partner followed suit, it came around to you and you were able to use that to take the first trick.

Now you have lead.

That looks rather inviting, BUT DON"T LEAD IT!  A mistake common to beginners is to just fire that high card out there because leading with suit aces is normally a good thing to do.  However, in this case it would not be correct.  This is because you have three of the spades in your hand.  That means that at least one of the other players probably does not have any.

If you lead that and the player to your left follows suit, your partner may believe that it will be good.  He may lay off the trick, dumping one of his lesser cards.  This gives the player acting last in the hand an opportunity to get a an easy trick if he has any trump.

It is better if you let your partner know right away that your remaining cards are weak and probably not going to be any help for the rest of this hand.  Hey - you got your one!  Lead the .