BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

WEST leads ♦ Q against South’s 3Nt contract (bid 1 ♦-1 ♠ -3Nt). Declarer wins with ♦ K and leads ♠ J, on which both West and dummy play low. How should East now play? THIS is a rare, but important, defensive situation. South has shown a balanced 19-point hand, which you assume has only a doubleton spade missing the ace.

It’s evident declarer will need spade tricks for his contract and with no apparent outside entry to dummy, it’s critical West holds off his ♠ A until declarer’s last spade is played. To achieve this, West needs to know, on the first round of the suit, whether east holds two or three spades. The easiest way to signal this is for east to drop his highest card in the suit, in this case

♠ 9, on the first spade trick to show three cards, and his lowest to show a doubleton.

I introduced this trivial, but useful, little ‘gadget’ many years ago under the name of Trickless Dummy Peter. It’s also now referred to as the Rule of the entryless Dummy — and the ‘rule’ is easier to remember than to spot when the dummy is ‘entryless’. (Continued tomorrow).