Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-18
BRIDGE TALKS
Hr MRS. JOHN MuNcE. IN.

Today we win begin the discussion
which will take several talks to finish
Of how to play from dummy. This is
very interesting subject. ana one on
which many players differ. But there
are many rules that At the majority Of
hands, and these you will do well to
remember.
When you are declarer and have to
decide whether you will win your first
trick in dummy or in the closed hand,
your decision rests on two things-first,
ON where you want the lead for the
second trick to come from. and, second,
on whether you VIII need the trick
taking card as an entry card for that
hand later on. For instance, II q suit
has been led and you have the king and
one small card in dummy and the ace
and one small one in your hand, you
can see that with this combination you
will have to decide what card to play
by planning your hand. We will take
up the planning of the general play Of
the hands later. You will have to de-
eide the best lead to make for the
second trick; also whether you will need
the high card in dummy as an entry
card later.
Another example: Dealer has bid one
no trump has secured the contract. and
the six-spot of hearts Is led. Dummy
contains only two hearts. the king and
Jack, and the bidders hand contains
only small hearts Declarer can win
this trick by putting on the king from
dummy If the lead was from an ace
high suit. BY playing the Jack, declarer
can stop the suit II the lead was from
the queen-high, which would mean that
the ace was on the left Of dummy. But
should he play the king, knowing the
ace to be in leaders partners hand,
the opponents will be able to make
many tricks in that suit. AS declarer
has had no opportunity to find out from
the bidding or the lead where the ace
lies, in this case he will have to do
little guessing, and 1t looks as If he
should play the king. The king will
not be the right play at all times, but
1t will win more times than it will lose,
due to the fact that when q player
opens his own suit against a no-trunp
declartion he is more likely to be
stronger in that suit and have more
cards in that suit than his partner. OF
course. the lead may have been from
length and not strength, but II the
leader had two suits of equal length he
would select the stronger to lead from,
You will find that in the majority of
cases the player leading does hold more
cards OF the suit led than his partner.
When we discuss the probability of
any given card icing in the hand of
the leader, we must, OF course, except
the leads which deny specific cards
For instance, the lead of the queen,
jack, 10-spot and 9-spot would show
that the hand of the leader did not
contain the next highest card. For
instance, the lead of the jack would
deny the presence of the queen in the
hand of the leader. So when dummy
holds the king and one small one in
the suit led, and the closed hand only
small cards in that suit, there Is no
question as to what should be done
the king must be played to win the
trick If you are to win with 1t at all.
Because If the partner of leader holds
the ace and you play the small one from
dummy, he will finesSe a small card in
his hand. leading back the ace and
catching your king. With the lead Of a
small heart, the king and one small
one in dummy, the leader could not
have held the queen, Jack, 10-spot, be-
cause in that case he would have led the
queen; and you know by the lead of a
small one that his partner must hold
the ace and either the jack or the 10
spot This shows you how important
it is to remember this play: for il you
are just guessing or playing a bunch
every time you meet doubtful situa-
ton, you are playing the greater part
of the time with the odds against you.
--S------