As the partner of the opening leader, you are the third person to play to the first trick.The card you choose can be very important in trying to win the trick or as a signal to partner.Test yourself on these problems. Only the spade suit is shown, and the contract is 4 .
Who has the queen?
Do you want to encourage this suit?
What would you play if leading this suit?
Quit
Who has the jack?
Who has the 10?
Who has the king?
Who has the ace?
Your partner, West, leads a spade against 4 , and you are East (third hand).
Playing a higher card than necessary is an encouraging signal, asking partner to lead the suit again. Together, you can win the first three tricks.
Playing your lowest card is a discouraging signal, meaning you have no desire for partner to continue. Often it would be wise for partner to shift to another suit.
By encouraging partner to continue you can trump the third round. Your nine does not specifically show a doubleton — it merely says, “continue this suit.”
When trying to win a trick as third hand you should play the lowest of equal cards. Note how this differs from the leader, who leads the top of a sequence.
Once dummy wins the ace it would be unwise to waste one of your honors, so just play low. Later, you hope to win two tricks in this suit.
Your queen is an important honor so you should encourage partner to lead the suit again. After forcing out the ace and king, you can win a trick in this suit.
You must play the king to win the trick else South would win the queen. It is now apparent that you and partner cannot win another trick in this suit.
You want partner to lead this suit later, so play the highest card you can spare. Do not confuse a signal with “trying to win a trick” when you would play the nine.
Partner’s lead of the queen marks South with the king so you should win the ace. You can see what would happen if you ducked.
There is no need to waste your king on the same trick as partner’s queen, but you can spare the eight as a signal to encourage partner to continue.
Once again, you like partner’s lead and should encourage by playing the eight. You should take the first three tricks in this suit.
Usually you play “third hand high” when trying to win the trick, but with the queen in dummy your jack is just as powerful as the king.
© 1990 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek