BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

Against South’s 3nt contract you lead the

♦ K. Declarer wins, crosses to his own hand, and leads a spade towards dummy. Which card do you play and why? In THIS situation, if you hold three cards in the suit concerned, you are more likely to have a suitable one with which to give a signal than if you have only two, so you start a peter with the ♠ 9 to show that you have three spades.

of course, if east has only two spades with the ace, there’s nothing he can do to help, as declarer will have three. But if east has ♠ Axx, he will know that South has a doubleton (otherwise the hand would likely have been played in spades), and he will know to hold off from winning the first round of the suit.

This is an optional, though very useful, signal and when licensed by the eBU was given the name ‘The Rule of the entryless dummy’ — though I’ve always called it the Trickless dummy Peter.

After the ♦ A has been knocked out, declarer will not be able to establish dummy’s spade suit, if east has Axx and can hold off. The importance of being able to tell partner how many cards in the suit you hold is critical for partner to determine whether he should win his ace on the second or third round.