LEARNING CENTER

Q. When playing third to the trick, we play the lower of touching honors. This way, if partner gets in, he'll know to play this suit again since you must have the K or else declarer would have won it. If you play the K and then switch, partner will expect declarer to have the Q. 

5. We would like to tell partner that we like the lead, but can't afford to signal with a trick. Partner might lead low from 10762 or some other holding without the J and playing the Q or K would gift declarer a trick. 

7. When we can choose between two low cards, our card should have meaning. This is an attitude situation. Our attitude is "yes, please!" so we play the higher one. 

J. When dummy has an honor you can beat, save your high one for dummy's high one. In this case, we actually know that declarer doesn't have a singleton since partner can't have a five-card suit (or he would have led a higher spot card). Even without that assurety, it's right to play the jack or you would set up a trick for declarer. 

7. In third seat, we play as high as necessary which means that we play the cheapest of equals (the 7, 9 and jack are equal given the dummy). If the 7 forces out the king and your partner has led from Q32, he will know you have the J97 (and not the 6). 

Q. We don't want to signal with a trick, but in this case, we know partner has the K (and that we won't take many more since dummy will be out). Playing the Q promises the J (with a doubleton, we would play low). This allows partner to underlead the K if he wants us to be on lead at trick 3.