Falsecards on Opening Lead

An opening lead falsecard may be warranted if an aggressive or desperate lead is needed. For instance:

• The opponents have bid strongly, e.g. stopping in game after investigating slam.
• Your hand indicates that key suits or cards lie favorably for declarer.
• You are trailing in a session, and need a swing.

Even if one of these conditions are present, expert player and writer Mike Lawrence recommends falsecarding only if:

• You hold the critical cards held by the defenders so that partner will not be involved in the defense (and not have an opportunity to be misled into making a bad decision).
• You must be able to predict how the play of the hand will go and what effect your falsecard will have. ¹

The following example is from Zia Mahmood's autobiography "Bridge My Way" ²:

Against a strongly bid 3NT, Zia led the ♦4. Matt Granovetter won the ace and returned the ♦3, which ostensibly showed a four-card suit. Accordingly, declarer assumed 4 losers at most: 3 diamonds and 1 heart. He rose with the ♦K and took the heart finesse. Granovetter, of course, won this and rattled off his diamond winners to beat the contract.

An opening lead can not only disguise suit length, but specific honors as well. The following deal was from a club game in California:

After hearing North's bidding, West assumed that her diamond honors were poorly placed. She therefore tried the opening lead of the ♦J to misrepresent her actual holding.

Her ruse worked. Declarer feared a singleton and hopped up with the ♦A. A low club to the ♣K then lost to West's ♣A. At trick 3, West found a heart switch that forced South to finesse. When this lost, the defense collected another club and a diamond to set the cold contract. (And, incidentally, trigger a director call!)

¹ Lawrence, Mike. (1986). Falsecards.

² Mahmood, Zia. (1995). Bridge My Way.