Acquiesce to temptation

Lane Olinghouse, an author of self-help articles, said, “Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address.”

In yesterday’s deal, East had to resist the temptation to play third hand high when his highest card was only an eight. Then, it was right to give count by playing low from a tripleton. This permitted partner to work out that declarer had started with only two cards in this suit.

What is the situation today? May East succumb to third-hand-high temptation?

South is in three no-trump, and West leads his fourth-highest spade four.

When declarer covers West’s spade four with dummy’s five, East may play third hand high because he has a doubleton in that suit. He starts an echo, a high-low.

A clever South will take that trick with his jack, not with the eight. From East’s play, South knows that West started with the spade ace and queen. As long as East does not win a trick, declarer still has a spade stopper.

South then leads his low heart to dummy’s king and runs the club queen.

After taking the trick with his king, what should West do next?

West will be tempted not to believe his partner and to cash the spade ace, thinking it will drop South’s king. Here, though, that lets the contract make. Instead, West should trust East, not South. If South still has two spades left, East must be put on lead. West should shift to the diamond nine, top of nothing. Then East should win with his ace and return the spade two. This allows the defenders to take one club, one diamond and four spades for down two.