Play Some BishStrategy · Chapter 4
Leading when your team called
Your team named trump and the first trick is yours to lead. What you lead depends on whether you called or your partner did.
Lead the Jack if you have it. If your partner called, lead your trump even if you only have one.
If you called and have no Jack, lead a side Ace, or a low trump if you have no Ace. Never lead your top trump when you don't hold the Jack.
Your partner called and you lead a trump instead of a side card: about 11 points a hand better. You called with no Jack and lead your top trump: about 34 points a hand worse.
If you called and you lead first
You lead the first trick when you sit to the dealer's left. We dealt 400,000 hands, kept the ones where the calling team had the first lead, and played each one four more times with a different first lead. Every other card was played the same way each time.
The first row shows how the hand does when you lead the usual way: the Jack if you hold it, otherwise a side Ace, otherwise a low trump. The other columns show what changing your lead does to your team's average points on the hand.
| Your hand when you called | Hands | Avg points | Goes bait | A side Ace instead | Low trump instead | Low side card instead | Top trump instead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack and 3+ trump | 95,356 | +41 | 14% | −1 | −20 | −8 | usual lead |
| Jack, under 3 trump | 11,610 | −26 | 34% | 0 | −9 | −6 | usual lead |
| No Jack, 3+ trump | 16,765 | +19 | 19% | usual lead | 0 | −4 | −34 |
Avg points is your team's average result on the hand, against the other team. A bait is a call that fails. The usual lead is the Jack if you hold it, then a side Ace, then a low trump.
Leading the Jack is right in both Jack rows. Nothing beats it. With no Jack, the top trump you hold is the 9 or the Ace, and the other team's Jack takes it. That costs 34 points a hand. A low trump or a side Ace does fine.
If your partner called and you lead first
This is the more useful case. Your partner has already named trump on cards you can't see, and the Jack is most likely in their hand. You hold the Jack in only 5% of these hands.
| Your hand, partner called | Hands | Avg points | Goes bait | Lead your top trump | Lead a low trump | Lead a low side card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Jack, 1 trump | 22,969 | −1 | 27% | +13 | +13 | −5 |
| No Jack, 2 trump | 29,623 | +14 | 21% | +11 | +9 | −4 |
| No Jack, 3+ trump | 19,148 | +51 | 10% | +1 | usual lead | −5 |
| The Jack | 3,969 | +63 | 7% | usual lead | −6 | −3 |
Each lead column shows the points gained or lost against the usual lead (the Jack, then a side Ace, then a low trump). With one or two trump, leading trump is worth 9 to 13 points a hand to your team. With three or more it makes no real difference.
We can measure that leading trump helps here. We can't tell you exactly why from the numbers.
Leading a low side card costs you in almost every row. The Ace is a better lead than a low card.
Holding the King and the 9, but not the Jack
Your partner called. You hold the King and the 9 of trump but not the Jack. Lead the King, not the 9. The King costs you little, and the next player has to spend a good trump to beat it. Then you still have the 9 for the second trick if your partner played the Jack.
We replayed 40,000 hands like this with different leads.
| You lead | Avg points | Goes bait |
|---|---|---|
| The King of trump | +63 | 7% |
| A low side card | +56 | 8% |
| The 9 of trump | +53 | 9% |
Avg points is your team's average lead over the opponents each hand.
What if your partner has no Jack?
The 9 is the risky lead, because an opponent's Jack takes it. That is rare when the call is normal: with the King and 9 in your hand, your partner held the Jack in 94% of these hands. Here is how the other 6% went.
| Who holds the Jack | You lead the King | You lead the 9 | You lead a side Ace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your partner | +68 | +58 | +60 |
| An opponent | -29 | -40 | -11 |
The 9 is the weaker lead either way, by about 10 points. (The 9 still beats the King in a trick. The point is that leading it first spends your strongest trump too early.) When an opponent holds the Jack nothing is good, and the side Ace loses the least. But you cannot see the Jack, and 94% of the time your partner has it, so lead the King.
Those partners were computer players, who hold the Jack on a call 82% of the time. People hold it 67% of the time, so at a real table the risky case comes up more than 6% of the time.
The King without the 9
Your partner called, and you hold the King but not the Jack or the 9. We replayed 60,000 hands like this. Again, lead the King. It only stops mattering when you also hold the Ace.
| Your trump | Lead the King | Lead another trump | Lead a side Ace |
|---|---|---|---|
| King alone | +15 | n/a | -4 |
| King and one other (no Ace) | +24 | +18 | +8 |
| King and two more | +55 | +49 | +48 |
| King and Ace | +44 | +43 (the Ace) | +24 |
| King, Ace and 10 | +61 | +62 (the Ace or the 10) | +59 |
With the King alone, leading it beats a side Ace by 19 points a hand, because it gets a trump out of the opponents' hands. With the King and the Ace, or the King, Ace and 10, it makes no real difference which trump you lead first.
If your partner turns out to have no Jack, the King alone loses more than a side Ace (-56 against -42). That was 3 hands in 100.
What real games show
There are too few real first leads of each kind to test every row. The partner case does show up. When a partner led and held no Jack and fewer than three trump, a trump lead went bait 10% of the time (29 hands) and any other lead 19% (453 hands). That points the same way as the simulation, but 29 hands is not enough to rely on.
Two hands, trump is spades
Gold outline is trump. You lead first.
Your partner called
You have two trump and no Jack. The usual lead is the Ace of hearts. Leading the 9 of spades instead is worth about 11 points a hand to your team.
You called, no Jack
You called spades with three trump and no Jack. Lead the Ace of hearts. Leading the Ace of spades would cost you about 34 points a hand.
How we know
We dealt 400,000 hands by computer and let the computer players bid as they normally do. We kept the 202,126 hands where the first lead belonged to the team that called. The caller led in 123,748 of them and the partner in 78,378. Each hand was replayed with four other first leads and the points were compared on the same cards.
Two caveats. The other three players always play the same careful way, and real people are messier. And this is about the first lead only. How to play the rest of the hand is a later chapter. It also leaves out forced calls, which are covered in Defending a forced call.
Updated 2026-11-05.