[jillybean]

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The auction seems weird, I don't know why south would not have opened but it went something like this,
North declaring 5♦X

Partner led the ♣K, ♣A then switched to the ♠A to which I played an encouraging signal. Partner continued
with a ♠ and his winning A♥ disappeared on the clubs.

The moral of the story, when defending against a 5 level contract the lead of the A denies the K and asks for attitude.The lead of the K asks for count. Some people only play this against doubled contracts at the 5 level so as always, something to discuss.

[Stephen Tu]

It's not only defending vs. 5 level contract where ace should deny king. It's also *from trick 2 onward*, at any level, even if your general agreement is A from AKx on first lead. In the middle of the hand it's just far too often you have to bang down a bare ace, and you want the proper signal in that case.

I think that it's a pity that people these days teach beginners the ace from AKx lead. They unwisely keep on doing it even in the middle of hands where it's disastrous. The older std of K from both akx and KQ??, although occasionally ambiguous, has fewer exceptions to deal with.

[blackshoe]

I think a lot of beginners don't realize that leads after the opening lead should be different from opening leads. It took me a while to figure it out, anyway.

[jillybean]

Another area of the game I need to look at, I've always led A from AK.

So on the (ACBL) CC LEADS checked only apply to the opening lead?

[perko90]

jillybean, on 2012-June-20, 23:28, said:

Another area of the game I need to look at, I've always led A from AK.

So on the (ACBL) CC LEADS checked only apply to the opening lead?

Yup, A from AK, 0 or 2 leads, etc. are off after opening lead.

[Mbodell]

For instance, at the start of the hand leading from a long suit most people will lead 4th best (or 3rd and low).

Mid-hand people are much more likely to lead attitude (a low card encourages a return, a high card encourages a switch).