The 3 Most Common Spades Mistakes: Number 1 - Leading Aces

This series of blogs will cover the 3 most common errors made by average-level players.

Average players very commonly lead aces because they deem them “safe leads”. In actuality, the ace lead is a very unsafe lead and I will explain why.

The ace is a very powerful card for many reasons. When an ace is led, it loses every one of its advantages. Here are the advantages of holding onto your aces:

a. Your side may capture an enemy honor card.
b. Your side may win the first round of the suit with a lesser card.
c. You retain an entry for later in the hand.
d. You maintain control of the suit (i.e. a “Stopper”)
e. You make it difficult for your opponents to win unsupported kings.
f. You make it difficult for the opponents to read your hand. By refusing to lead aces, the opponents have less ability to use the count card principle.


To sum things up, by refusing to lead these aces, you will have a better chance of developing extra tricks -- which may either gain a set, or prevent your side from going set!

You will make things hard on the opponents. They will grow frustrated with losing many of their counted king tricks due to you refusing to show the ace. This frustration will lead to underbids later on. These underbids will then lead to bags and cause even more frustration. This kind of pyschological frustration that great players cause is an extremely valuable weapon.

Entry Cards -- How They Affect Tempo

One of the most important components of Tempo is putting the right person on lead at the right time. We must keep the lines of transportation open when possible, such as in this example.

East, knowing that North always covers queens, placed South with the ♣K and inserted the ♣A. East followed with the ♣5 to South's ♣K. South swithced to the ♥J to West's ♥A. West, observing the fall of the ♣10 from South on trick 1, switched to diamonds. After cashing the ♦A and ♦K, West continued with the ♦4.

From this position, we see there is only one line of play for North/South to set East/West. North must ruff with the ♠10, lead the top two spades, and finally enter South's hand with the ♠2. Then South can cash his diamond winners while North throws off his heart losers.

How does North correctly deduce this line of play and correctly unblock spades?

Let us examine the previous plays. Since East/West only need one more trick to fulfill their bid, North must recognize the only possibility of a set is if South has diamond or heart winners to discard his losers. North thus realizes he needs an entry to partner's hand after running spades. He quickly deduces that it is unlikely his partner holds the ♥K since he had led the ♥J earlier. Since West covered the ♥J with the ♥A, East's last count trick must be the ♥K. Thus, the most likely candidate for an entry to South's hand is the spade suit. A brilliant deduction by North allowed them the set by keeping the lines of transporation open and making a key unlbocking play to allow the right player to be on lead at the right moment.

The Forcing Defense -- Disrupting an Opponent's Tempo when on Defense.

Most spades players don't ever consider their roles during a hand as "Offensive" or "Defensive" positions.

This is a mistake, as each role requires much different Tempo strategies. Realizing when you are on Defense, for instance, is the first step to developing the right strategy to disrupt the opponents' Tempo.

West started the hand with the ♣A and continued a club to North's ♣K, two plays that helped North/South establish clubs. South's clubs were now sitting perfect.

North switched to the ♦4; East inserted the Ace, South trumped and switched to the ♠2. On lead with the ♠J, what is East's best lead?

If he leads a spade, heart, or club, the opponents win and continue spades. After two rounds of spades South is left with the last spade plus three established clubs. East/West would be held to one club, two spades, and a possible heart trick.

A diamond return by East disrupts South's Tempo. He can trump and play the ♠A and another spade, but West wins this trick and South is out of spades. East/West then run diamonds. Or South can refuse to trump. However he has no useful discard and East/West will get their bid.

On East's diamond return, South did trump but abandoned the idea of leading spades. He simply cashed out his winners; both sides finished the deal fulfilling their bid. East's forcing play in diamonds being the key to disrupting South's Tempo.

The Hold-Up -- Cutting off an Entry to Disrupt Tempo

The hold-up play is used when you hope to thwart the tempo of the opponents by refusing to take your ace on the first round.

A play very seldom used, it is highly effective and assumes only a small risk. It should be used more often by the so called "experts".

West led the ♥K, North following with the ♥4 and East with the ♥9. South, knowing West lacked entries due to his bid, figured a hold up with a favorable distribution might kill East/West's entries and followed with the ♥2.

West continued with ♥Q, and this time South took the ♥A. East now had no way of reaching West's hearts.

North and South switched to clubs and then diamonds. When East took the ♦A he could not reach his partner's hand to discard a loser.

With East forced to ruff hearts on trick 9, he was endplayed and his side could only win 3 spades, 1 heart and 1 diamond.

Had South not held up the ♥A, East could have led a heart to his partner. Hearts by West fulfills their bid.

Tempo -- An Illustration

Here is an extreme example of how tempo can be greatly mismanaged.

When West decides to make a conservative lead -- the ♣2, North/South will gain the tempo advantage by switching to hearts, clearing East's stopper and later continue the suit. Now with South's tempo advantage in hearts, East can no longer clear the spade suit and must end up giving South 3 spades.

On the other hand, we can clearly see that the ♦A followed up by the ♦6 is the best line of play. This gives East/West the tempo advantage by establishing diamonds while weakening South's spade position. Once South ruffs, East will push three rounds of spades and later cash his established diamonds. This line limits North/South to 1 club and 2 spades.

The loss of tempo on trick 1 in this case greatly affects the outcome of the hand.

Where is West's clue to guide him to the right lead? The 8 bid. As West on opening lead, he must try to find partner's long suit. The most likely candidate? Diamonds of course.

What is Spades Time?

If there is a unified theory of Spades, then it is Timing.


It's a strange fact that the concept of Timing in Spades is rarely mentioned in articles and is never given treatment in any of the published works. Of course the classic books on Bridge all cover this important theory in great detail. But it is this very concept that is at the heart of all spades strategy. If you want to master this game, first become very intimate with the concepts of timing.
Truly at its heart, Spades is a battle to win more time. Ruffing, suit establishment, the 5-5, the hold-up, endplays, squeezes, trump management, nil defense, nil coverage, - what is the underlying theme here? Timing.

But what the hell is "Spades Time"? I imagine you have a vague and muddy understanding of this strange concept, but clarity usually eludes even the "top players". It is thus important for us to break the concept into pieces. Only then will we be able to fully appreciate and later utilize the concept to its full potential.
A hand is divided into thirteen units. Each unit is a "time unit" and is controlled by the person on lead. Thus, when the opposition is on lead, you have lost a time unit. The reason we describe the units with the term "time" is because a spades hand is greatly affected not only by how these units are played, but when they are played.

There are two general categories of Timing to consider -- Trick Establishment and Trick Avoidance.

A team has a limited amount of time (13 tricks) to win additional time units, which become tricks. Time units can be gained or lost during a hand. There are many variables that affect time such as the cards you hold, the skill of each player at the table, who has the opening lead, and luck.

The essential thing to remember is that both teams are battling for more time.

A simple Timing example: You hold a singleton heart, and you hope for a 2nd round ruff. If the side suit is led twice, a ruff is available and you gain a time unit. However, if that suit is not led twice before spades are led, a potential time unit (the ruff) has been lost.

An opposing example:
♠ Axxxx
♥ --
♦ xx
♣ KQJxxx

If hearts are led to force you to ruff, it will become increasingly difficult to later steal time units with established clubs. On the other hand, if clubs are led early, it will become more likely that your established clubs will win time.

The underlying factor in each example is when each suit is played. Time is either gained or lost based on the timing of each lead.

Terminology:

Spades Time: The concept that a spades hand is divided into 13 time units. The manner and order in which each unit is played affects the time units available to each side.

Time Unit: 1 trick.

Time Management: The art of managing one's cards in order to maximize the amount of time units available.

Captaincy: Some hands allow one player of a partnership more information earlier about the correct line of play. This player must take control as he will know how to steer the tempo. It is critical for the captain's partner to quickly follow his lead. Keep in mind that most hands do not have a captain as everyone is trying to find the correct line. But sometimes, a player will gain a quicker insight on a particular deal and needs to steer the ship. Most "good players" are over confident of their abilities and want to control every hand, and thus never recognize when their partner should be steering the hand.

Two Categories of Timing Approaches:

Defensive Timing: A timing strategy implemented when a team lacks captaincy.

Offensive Timing: A timing strategy implemented when a team holds captaincy.