How to Open Leads in Pinochle When You're Declaring

Video Transcript

"Remember it doesn't matter who has the opening bid, it doesn't matter what the specific bid per say, it's the person who names the trump suit. They are the declarer. Just like in Euchre, the person who names the trump suit is the declarer. Just like in Whist, whoever names the trump suit or no trump in the case of Whist is the declarer. It doesn't exist in Spades though because there is more than one person that can be bidding and each side has their own bid. Let us say that my partner has given me some pretty good meld bids, but he's deferred to me to name the trump and I like diamonds. I mean after all I've got eight diamonds here. A doubleton spade, a very nice hand, good controls in spades, my partner's given me some good support so I know he's got at least thirty meld for me because he's jumped to fifty-three in when he opened, he bid fifty-three. That's a bidding system. I get to play the hand. I make the opening lead. We're going to talk about play of the hand in a little bit. What is my best opening lead? Well, it's to get rid of this and without playing this whole hand out, the reason why I want to get rid of this right away; it's a short suit with an ace. If I don't get rid of this, and let's just say I play a heart or a small club or a small diamond and they grab the lead and they've got two aces of spades between them, remember, if you remember the first one takes preference, they'll just go ace, ace, and my ace just went away. So the main purpose of this segment is the declarer of the hand has the opening lead."