BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

SOUTH is playing in 3NT and wins West’s ♦ Q with the king. he then plays ♠ J, on which, of course, West and dummy play low. Yesterday’s question was ‘which card should East play’? The answer is ♠ 9, if you are using my recommended Trickless Dummy Peter (to show a 3-card suit). Otherwise you play ♠ 3.

The logic for this is straightforward — West needs to hold up his ♠ A to prevent declarer being able to establish dummy’s long suit. he doesn’t know at this stage whether declarer started with two or three spades, i.e. whether he needs to hold up once or twice, and he can’t wait until the second round to find out. From his viewpoint, there are four missing spades — 9432; without the use of TDP, east would play ♠ 3, and West is none the wiser. Is this from his actual holding, or from a doubleton ♠ 32?

The highest card in a 3- card sequence is generally more conspicuous and unambiguous than the lowest. It is easy to remember this principle, but it is not always so easy to spot when dummy has no outside entry.