Third Hand as High as Necessary
I sent my brother-in-law to the grocery store to pick up some ginger and other supplies for dumplings. Anyone who cooks with ginger knows you need less than a knob for almost every recipe. He came back with what must have been all the ginger in the store.
I've learned that specifics are really important when it comes to my instructions.
New players often hesitate to play their high cards in third seat. "I don't want to waste my King/Queen/Jack when it won't win the trick." That's the wrong thought. In third hand, we may not always win the trick, but we don't want to allow declarer to win a trick cheaply either. After seeing a lot of declarers winning tricks in fourth seat with 8s and 9s, I made sure to teach defenders, "third hand high".
Then, one day, I saw a student with AQx behind the K play the ace. "Third hand high," they said, smiling at me.
So now I specify, third hand as high as necessary.
You need to make sure your cards are working properly: not letting declarer win this trick cheaply AND not setting up future tricks for declarer.
The key is to look at dummy and think about what partner's lead signifies along with what declarer is likely to hold. Let's look at some common scenarios and see if we can make the right plays.
Example 1:
DUMMY Q72 | ||
| YOU K106 |
What would you play from hand after dummy plays the 2 against 3NT? What about Against 4
Answer:
Play the 10, both times. Against notrump, partner might be leading away from an ace, but so what? If partner has the ace and not the jack, declarer will always be able to take a trick in this suit. If partner has the ace and the jack, putting in the 10 prevents declarer from taking any tricks in this suit.
Against a suit contract, partner will not be leading away from an ace which makes it very important to play the 10. Playing the king won't set up anything for your side and may gift declarer a trick when partner holds the jack. This would be the same situation if dummy held J72 instead of Q72. Look at this layout which could be the same against either contract and see how playing the king helps the opponents.
| Q72 | ||
| J954 | K106 | |
| A83 |
Example 2
| DUMMY QJ102 | ||
| YOU K543 |
Partner leads the 9. The 10 is played from dummy. Do you play the K? Does it matter this is a suit contract or notrump?
Answer: Play low, either way. Partner's 9 could be from two small or three small. Partner doesn't have the ace. You have to hope that declarer has the ace doubleton or third. Playing the king can't help your side, so play low.
Example 3:
| DUMMY 872 | ||
| YOU KJ3 |
Partner leads the 4, dummy plays the 2. What do we play against notrump? What do we play against a suit?
Answer: Against notrump, play the K. Partner could easily have the ace. If partner has the A10xx or similar, declarer isn't entitled to any tricks unless you mistakenly play low.
Against a suit contract, partner isn't leading low from an ace (we discussed this in a past issue). Since we assume declarer has the ace, we can play the jack as what's called a "discovery play". We want to discover who holds the queen. If declarer wins the jack with the ace (or ducks), we'll discover that partner holds the Q.