Journalist Leads

JOURNALIST LEADS

Now technically called “Zero or Two Higher Leads”, original “Journalist” leads were introduced in the 1960’s but are unused now, in favor of the “Two or None” style described below.

Journalist leads aren’t the “required lead” at any time: they are leads from broken honor suits when good Standard or upside down-leads aren’t available. For example, lead the top of an honor sequence, not a Journalist lead, if you have the choice. Or lead your partner’s bid suit.

Standard Leads. Standard Leads in NoTrump or Suit contracts are printed on the front of the convention card, and you must use them as printed unless you modify the Leads table on your convention cards. “Journalist” or “Coded Nine’s and Ten’s” are such modifications. Write those words under “Defensive Carding – Standard Except ■:” on the convention card.

NON-JOURNALIST LEADS

Standard leads: Low. The lead of a low card nowdays usually implies some high card strength. High. The lead of an Ace suggests “Ace from Ace & King”. The lead of a King or Queen (or Jack ?) suggests a 3-card honor sequence, i.e., “The top of a sequence of 3 honors”. “Boston” is a popular term nowdays, meaning “Bottom of Something; Top of Nothing”. Nothing: The lead of a 9, 8, 7 or 6 (?) usually shows the highest of a suit with no honors. X8643. But lead the 8; not the X at the top of your suit: why tell the Declarer everything about the suit? But the lead of 9’s, 10’s and Jack’s is ill-defined in Standard. Is it the top of nothing? The second highest? The top of a Jack-high honor sequence? The top of an “interior sequence”, like ♣ KJT6 as the convention card suggests? Who knows? But there’s a better way for suits and NT leads.

JOURNALIST LEADS? WHAT ARE THEY? When you read the “Leads” section of the convention card, you see that most of the examples are suits with broken honor sequences, like ♣AJ109 or ♣KT9(x). I call them “mixed suits”.

Journalist leads are a superior way to handle broken honor suits like ♣KT9(x), for example. As far back as the 1960’s, world class experts like Eddie Kantar recognized that Standard leads in mixed suits fail to convey as much information as they might, and especially fail to show the power of Jacks, Tens and Nines in combination with higher honors in mixed suits. (I have Eddie’s 1974 book explaining this, if you want to read his reasoning).

Journalist lead fans believe the standard lead from ♣KT9(x) – the Ten – is improved upon by leading the 9 instead, because of Journalist “rules” about the leading of a Nine or a Ten.

Here’s all the “Rules for Journalist Leads”. That’s all there are: two.

(1) “Jack Denies” means the lead of a Jack denies any higher honors in that suit. Period. Lead a Jack and you don’t have the Ace, King or Queen in that suit. Simple. The Ten is often implied, but is certainly not promised.

JOURNALIST LEADS

(2) The lead of a 9 or 10 “Implies” (guarantees) either zero or two higher honors, not in sequence, so the Standard ♣KT9(x) lead becomes ♣KT9(x) - lead the 9, showing 2 or no higher honors. It’s the “Coded Nines and Tens” part. The lead of a ♣Queen would show a sequence of ♣QJT(x); i.e., it’s Standard, not Journalist. The lead of a 9 implies but doesn’t guarantee the 10, plus maybe an Ace, King or Queen, but not the Jack if it’s a 3-card sequence: lead the ♠J from ♠JT9(x) – not the ♠9. Journalist leads are explained with a simple phrase: “Jack Denies; 9 or 10 Implies”. That’s all of Journalist or “Coded Jacks, Nines or 10’s leads” in just 6 words. (not “Journalistic”, by the way: it’s “Journalist”) Ok, so it’s easy to remember; s o what? Why are “Coded 9’s, 10’s and J’s” better leads than Standard ones? (“Standard” are those printed on the ACBL Convention Card.)

As you’ll see below, it makes the lead of a 9, 10 or Jack more meaningful to partner, and that was recognized decades ago. Here’s why:

West leads the ♣9 as an opening lead, dummy has ♣653 and East has the ♣Kxx. What honors could West have in Clubs? If she has two higher honors, they are the ♣AQ or the ♣AJ or ♣AT. In that case, East should play her ♣K and lead a Club back, possibly capturing Declarer’s ♣Q. If the ♣9 is the “top of nothing”, then declarer has the ♣AQJ(x) and the struggle for defensive tricks in Clubs is over, but that’s important information for the defense. It tells the Declarer too, but she’s looking at the ♣AQJ(x) anyhow.

Another example: West leads the ♠Ten; dummy has ♠Jxx and East has the ♠KQ9x. East can see 4 honors, meaning West can’t have two higher ones, so the complete picture in Spades is totally clear to East. West’s ♠Ten lead was a “Coded Ten” lead, denying any higher Spade honor. In this hand, East has the ♠9 too, so dummy’s ♠J is smothered.

Usually, partner of the Nine or Ten leader immediately knows the exact distribution of honors, as she sees her hand and the dummy and can mentally place 2 or zero honors in the leader’s hand. Of course, the lead of a Jack is also clear: No higher honors. Often, the bidding will tell her whether it’s even possible that the leader has 2 higher honors. The declarer also knows how Journalist leads work and can look at her hand, the dummy and the lead to see a possible honor configuration. However, Declarer (South) doesn’t know whether the missing honors are in the West or East hand, whereas East does know where they are. So the defense keeps the opening lead advantage because East knows something declarer does not. The bottom line about Journalist Leads, at a suit or no-trump contract, is that the defense can make an informative lead from a broken honor hand, often letting partner know the entire honor distribution on the opening lead. This can sometimes retain the “tempo” in the suit for the defenders even if they don’t win the first lead of the suit. And, if 3rd hand sees there’s no future in that suit, she can change her Defensive Plan so far as that suit is concerned. For example, she doesn’t have to later “return partner’s lead” if it’s hopeless.

Additional considerations for Journalist leaders include whether such leads are used when defenders have bid the suit, and whether the partner of the bidder has raised it. I feel the advantages of Journalist leads continue even if defenders have bid and / or raised the suit.