Dealer
: South
Vuln : Both |
HAMMAN'S
TIPS #25
by Bob Hamman
the world's #1 ranked player
|
Archives
of all back
issues of all daily
columns are available
with Bridgetoday.com
membership (which
also includes 12
issues of Bridge
Today Magazine,
100 archive issues
of Bridge Today
Digest Online, and
one Bridge Today
University course).
Click
here for
further details
|
|
Opening
lead: 3
This
one I got right. I put in the jack to make it easier
for
my
partner. South won the queen and led the Q.
I won and played
K and
a spade to defeat the contract.
The
problem with playing the king on the first round
is that
when you
return the jack, partner won't know
if you hold K-J-x or
K-J-10-x. In
the first case, partner
will have to duck South's queen.
In the
latter, partner
may have to win the trick and take the first
five
tricks.
My
tip is: When you're sure of gaining the lead,
consider
playing
your middle card at trick one,
preserving the ace or king
for next
time. The play
would also have worked from K-10-x, where
South
holds
Q-9-7-x.
|