Quiz - Playing the third hand

Play the ♠K. Remember, third hand plays high, and you only have one high card.

Here's the full layout:

When partner leads the ♠2 they’re telling you that they probably have good clubs. So you should play ♠K and continue with ♠J to capture declarer's ♠Q. If you don't play the ♠K declarer will be able to win with their ♠Q.

Hand 3

You're sitting East.
Partner leads the ♠2 and Declarer plays the ♠3 in dummy.
Which card do you play?

Correct Answer: ♠9

Partner leads the ♠2.
You have ♠KJ10, and dummy has ♠Q10x which completes your sequence.
If dummy plays low, then play the ♠9; it's high enough to win the trick if partner has the Ace, or force out declarer's Ace if they have it:

Partner's lead suggests they have an honor – the ♠A; so win with the ♠9 and continue with the ♠K, then play the 3rd Spade.

If however, partner's lead was 2nd best, it would deny an honor and Declarer might take your ♠9 with the ♠A. But you'd still have the ♠KJ over dummy's ♠Q10. And if Declarer allowed you to win, you'd still need to switch suits to keep your ♠KJ over dummy's ♠Q.

To take this even further; if dummy didn't have the ♠10 and played low, you'd have to play the ♠J because you'd want to prevent declarer from taking your ♠9 with their ♠10:

Hand 4

You're sitting East.
Partner leads the ♠2 and Declarer plays the ♠3 in dummy.
Which card do you play?

Correct Answer: ♠9

Play the ♠9, because partner has at least one of the two missing honors (♠A and/or ♠J).

If partner has both spade honors, your ♠9 will win the trick. But if you play the ♠K, dummy's ♠Q will be promoted as partner's Ace won't capture dummy's ♠Q:

If partner has the ♠J, declarer has ♠A and you play the ♠K, then declarer can make 2 tricks, as their ♠Q is promoted:

So, by playing the ♠9, you'll be able to force out declarer's Ace and your ♠K can still take dummy's ♠Q the next time partner plays spades. Thus, declarer will only make one trick in spades, instead of two.

If however, partner holds the ♠A and declarer has the ♠J, declarer will always score a trick; your ♠9 will lose to the ♠J, but your ♠K will capture dummy's ♠Q later on, as seen here:

Hand 5

You're sitting East.
Partner leads the ♠5 and Declarer plays the ♠3 in dummy.
Which card do you play?

Correct Answer: ♠K

Dummy has ♠Qx, and you have ♠K1097. Dummy's honor doesn't complete your sequence, there's still ♠J missing. So you need to play ♠K to try and win the trick. As partner leads small, they'll usually have an honor. The ♠5 could well be 4th best.

We need to try to imagine declarer's cards:
- If they have no honor in hand, they would surely play the ♠Q in dummy, hoping that West leads low from AKx5 (vs NT).
- If declarer has the Ace and your partner has the ♠J, declarer will surely try the ♠Q, in the hope that West has the ♠K, meaning ♠Q wins the trick.

Here, declarer plays a low card in dummy which means they have the ♠J. So, your partner has the Ace. You need to play the ♠K and continue with the ♠10 to avoid blocking the suit:

Your partner will win the next trick with the ♠A, and play the ♠2 to your ♠9, then you continue with the ♠7 to partner's ♠8 and partner will be able to cash their ♠6 too.

Hand 6

You're sitting East.
Partner leads the ♠Q and Declarer plays the ♠3 in dummy.
Which card do you play?

Correct Answer: ♠K

Play the ♠K and return with the ♠2 next to prevent blocking the suit:

If you play low, partner will win the ♠Q but when they continue the suit, declarer will probably play low again, which will force you to win with your ♠K. But now you won't have any more Spades to play and develop partner's longest suit.

Therefore you'll have blocked their suit. Partner's lead suggests that Spades is their longest suit and that they have a sequence (QJ10) or a broken sequence (QJ9 or Q109) in that suit. Meaning between the two of you, you might hold all the high cards except the ♠A. Therefore, you need to overtake the first trick with the ♠K, continue in spades to allow partner to continue in spades, until you force out the ♠A.

Assuming partner has an entry to their hand, they will be able to enjoy the rest of the Spades when they get the hand.

Hand 7

You're sitting East.
Partner leads the ♠Q and Declarer plays the ♠A in dummy.
Which card do you play?

Play the ♠K. This will prevent you from blocking the suit:

If you play low, when partner gets the hand, they'll play the ♠J and you'll end up winning the trick with your ♠K. You won't have any more Spades to play to partner's long promoted suit. You've blocked the suit. It gets worse if you don't have any more entries to partner's hand in other suit.

Partner's lead suggests that Spade is their long suit and also means they have a sequence (or broken sequence) in that suit (QJ10, or QJ9). That means you both hold all the high cards except the ♠A.

Therefore, you need to unblock the ♠K at 1st trick even though Declarer wins with the ♠A. Doing so will free up partner's Spades and when either of you win a trick, you'll be able to continue in Spades and make 4 more tricks.

Hand 8

You're defending, sitting West.
Contract is 4♥ by South, and none of the opponents bid Spade.
You lead the ♠A, dummy follows with small ♠, and partner with the ♠Q.
What is the meaning of partner's ♠Q?

Partner is showing a sequence. So, if you lead low and dummy follows low, if partner has a sequence they will play the LOWEST of a sequence.

But if you lead a high card and partner follows it with an honor, it shows for definite that there is a card just below it (unless it's a singleton; impossible here, as opponents didn’t bid spades).

So why is it important?
Because you might want to enter partner's hand and they're showing you where the entry is.
The full deal could be:

The only setting defense here is to play a low Spade at trick 2 to partner's marked ♠J and get a Club return from them. Then you make 2 Spades and 2 Club tricks.

Play it any other way, and declarer will manage to pull out the trumps and discard their Club losers on their good diamonds. During bidding you overcalled 2♣, but even without the overcall, clubs should be the obvious play for partner given dummy's club weakness.

Hand 9

You're defending, sitting West.
You lead the ♠5, Declarer plays the ♠3 from dummy, partner follows with the ♠J, and South wins with the ♠A.
Who has the ♠Q?

The ♠Q has to be with partner, otherwise South would've won the trick with the ♠Q. As this is the case, when you win your next trick, play low to avoid knocking partner's ♠Q or to avoid blocking the suit.

This could be the full position:

If you play low, partner will win with the ♠Q and you'll still have the ♠K to beat declarer's ♠10. But if you play the ♠K, partner's ♠Q will drop and declarer will still have the ♠10 to make a spade trick later.

Or it also could be

Play low to avoid blocking. If you play the ♠K, it will succeed if partner throws the ♠Q. But when you play ♠K and partner plays the ♠8, the suit will be blocked. Next, when you play low to partner's ♠Q they might not have another entry to your hand for you to play the remaining spade tricks.

Hand 10

You're defending, sitting West.
You lead the ♠5, Declarer plays the ♠3 from dummy, partner follows with the ♠Q, and South wins with the ♠A.
Who has the ♠J?

It has to be with South, because if partner had ♠QJ, they would've played ♠J. Third hand plays LOW from a sequence. By playing the ♠Q, partner denies the ♠J.

So, when you get the hand, think about playing another suit. Try to put partner on lead so that they can continue spades through declarer. If you continue spades yourself, you'll promote opponent's ♠J.

The full position: