March 2005 - 51

I didn't know that
1. When you are declarer, an honor
card is led and you have higher
equal honors, win the trick with the
honor that the opening leader can't
have. English translation coming up:
a.
3 2
 Q J 10 8 6
975
AQ J 8 6
AK 4
West leads the Q, East discourages and you (South) decide to win
the trick. Which honor should you
play?
From East's point of view, the
queen can be led from either holding listed - more often than not, it
is from a suit headed by the Q-J.
The honor West can't have is the
king. Therefore, win the trick with
the king. Now East can't be sure
who has the ace.
West already knows you have the
A K from East's signal, so you
can't fool West - but why not give
East a slight headache?
b.
65
 J 10 9 3 2
874
 K J 10 3 2
 A J 10 3 2
AK Q
Playing standard leads, West leads
the J against a notrump contract
and East discourages. From East's
point of view, West may have led
from any of the three holdings.
The one honor West can't hold
is the Q. Therefore, you (South)
must win the trick with your queen.
Now put yourself in the East seat.
What will East think when you win
the queen?
Suppose you win the trick with
the K instead. Now what will
East think? East can eliminate the
K-J-10 possibility and is left with
the J-10-9 or the A-J-10 possibilities. Two possibilities are easier to
March 2005

deal with than three.
If you win the trick with the A,
what will East think? East can eliminate the A-J-10 and K-J-10 (you
would have won with the queen)
possibilities, so you must have the
A-K-Q. A dead giveaway.
What about winning a trick with
the higher equal to fool the defenders? You do that mainly when a low
card is led and third hand plays an
honor:
87
 A 10 6 4 2
J95
KQ3
West leads low and East plays the
jack, denying the king but not the
queen. Win the trick with the king.
Now West doesn't know who has
the queen.
2. When dummy has the secondand third-ranking cards in a
suit facing a void, you (as
declarer) should consider a
loser-on-loser play.
KQ54
AJ 3
A8 6
K95
-
K85
KJ9
 A Q J 10 8 7 6
You wind up in 6 with a trump
lead, East following. Rather than take
two red-suit finesses, why not make a
100% play?
Notice your spade holding.
Dummy has the second- and thirdranking spades while a defender has
the ace, the highest-ranking spade.
Draw a second trump, ending in
dummy, and lead the K. If East
plays low, discard a heart. Suppose
West wins the A; you discard
your diamond loser on the Q.
These second- and third-ranking
cards are easy to recognize when

INTERMEDIATE PLAYERS

Chalk Talk

Eddie Kantar
www.kantarbridge.com
it is K-Q facing a void. Be on the
lookout, however, for the Q-J-(x)
facing a void after the king or ace
has been played. Another possibility
is the J-10-(x) facing a void after
two of the top three honors have
been played, leaving one higher
honor outstanding.
It goes even further than that:
9854
AQ 3
A9 8
A3 2
 J 10
 K J 10 6 5 2
54
KJ4
You open 2 and wind up in 4.
West leads the Q (queen from
A-K-Q), cashes the A and switches
to a diamond. You remain with the second- and third-ranking spades and there
is only one higher spade outstanding:
the king. You know what that means.
Win the A, draw trumps ending
in dummy and lead the 9, discarding a diamond, your quick loser.
West wins and leads a diamond. Too
late. You ruff and a club goes off on
the 8.
This type of loser-on-loser play
reduces the need to take unnecessary finesses. If you can afford to
lose one trick, it affords you the
opportunity to discard two losers. 
51
http://www.kantarbridge.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2005
