The best suit of all to lead from is, of course, one which combines both elements of strength.
In opening a suit, there is always the danger of finding your partner very weak, or of leading up to a _tenace_ (_i.e._, the best and third best cards, or the second best guarded) in the hand of the fourth player. If you lead from a very strong suit, these dangers are more than compensated for by the advantages just explained; if your best suit is only moderately strong, the lead is not profitable, but rather the reverse. If all your suits are weak, the lead is very disadvantageous. The hand, however weak, must hold one suit of four at least, and this, if only headed by a ten or a nine, should generally be chosen. Being unable to strike the adversary, you take the best chance of not assisting him.
It follows that a suit consisting of a single card is a very disadvantageous one to lead from; yet no lead is more common, even among players of some experience. The reason assigned in favour of this lead is the possibility of making small trumps. But it is important to observe, that you stand very nearly as good a chance of making trumps by waiting for some one else to open the suit. If the suit is opened by the strong hand, your barrenness will not be suspected; you will be able, if necessary, to win the second round, while you will be free from the guilt of having sacrificed any high card your partner may have possessed in the suit, or of having assisted in establishing a suit for the adversary. Again, your partner, if strong in trumps, will very likely draw yours, and then return your lead, imagining you led from strength. If, indeed, he is a shrewd player, he will, after being taken in once or twice, accommodate his game to yours; but he can never be sure of the character of your lead, and may often miss a great game by not being able to depend upon you. If you have great numerical strength in trumps, the evils of a single-card lead are lessened; but in this case, as will hereafter be shown, it is generally right to lead trumps. In the opinion of the author, it may be laid down as an axiom, that in plain suits (_i.e._, in suits not trumps) the original lead of a single card is in no case defensible.