Winning Ways By Brian Senior

HIDING your strength and concealing a weakness are often two sides of the same coin. A very simple example would be the choice of which card to play when North leads the jack and you hold:

Declarer		Dummy
AKQ		732

How many players win with the ace and think they are being clever! In fact the ace tends to give away the true position, as it is rare to win with an unsupported ace immediately, certainly in No Trumps. What are the options? If you win with the queen, North will know you have AKQ but South can hope his partner has AJ10 or KJ10. Winning with the king, on the other hand, leaves South only one hope (AJ10) but allows North to think he may find his partner with the queen. As a rule, the king is probably best, but consider which defender Is likely to gain the lead first. Presumably you would like him to continue this suit, so play to encourage him to do so. If it is North, win trick one with the king. If It is South, win with the queen. With no particular target In mind, as we saw a couple of Issues ago In a quite different setting, the middle of three touching honours tends to be the most deceptive play. Let’s look at a couple of more advanced examples of concealing strength: North leads the Q against 6. You cash two top hearts but North turns up with  QJ2. If spades are 3-3 you can pitch both dummy’s clubs. If North has only two spades he can ruff the third one and cash a club. Playing AKQ makes It easy for North. Try instead the AK and eight. If he thinks you are about to ruff in dummy he may discard. A club goes on the eight and a fourth spade allows you to discard the remaining club loser. North begins with three rounds of clubs against 3. You have avoided the heart switch so far, but what about when you lose to the A? Rather than take a useless heart discard on the J, try the effect of discarding the 4. By feigning diamond weakness you imply greater heart strength. Maybe North will winA and switch to a diamond not a heart. On a good day diamonds will now provide two discards.