When there is an established suit against you, unless you can stop the dealer’s lead of trumps, make all possible tricks before you give up the lead. If the dealer once obtains the lead, he may exhaust the trumps, and make the established suit.
As the dealer sees the dummy hand and his own, and therefore knows the cards that are against him, give your partner correct information regarding the cards you hold. While this may be valuable to the dealer in placing the cards, the knowledge will be of greater benefit to your partner and yourself.
When trumps are against you, unless you lead your high cards early in the hand you may lose them. The dealer may be able to exhaust trumps, and make some one suit on which to discard his losing cards. When your hand is strong in each suit, there is not this danger; there can be no established suit against you.
No doubt the best opening that can be made against a trump declaration is from a combination containing both ace and king. The lead of the king from this combination gives you an opportunity to see the dummy and does not clear the suit for the adversary. While the king lead should usually be followed by the ace, in some cases, where it is apparent that the dealer’s weak hand can trump on the second round, or that the lead may clear the suit for the dealer or dummy, the suit should not be continued. It is rarely wrong to lead from a sequence, especially from one of three high cards. If you hold no sequence of three, perhaps those containing two honours in sequence, such as king queen, queen jack, or even jack ten, may be classed as good openings. Often when you hold no high card sequence, the lead is a disadvantage; experience shows that you make more tricks in a suit if it is led to you; for that reason it is often advisable to refrain from opening tenace suits or suits with a single honour.
The following are given as examples of combinations from which it is not advisable to lead:
In opening a suit headed by the ace, avoid the lead of a low card. The dealer may win the first round and find means to discard his remaining losing cards in that suit.
No objection can be raised to the lead of an ace with four or more other cards in the suit, but with less than five it is better play to avoid leading that suit. If the lead comes up to you, the ace may kill some high cards in the adversary’s hand and promote the value of the cards held by your partner; whereas if you lead the ace presumably only small cards will fall, making high ones good for the dealer.