Source: www.abfevents.com.au Youth Bulletins

How do you play these suits for all the winners?

1	A J 6 4	Dummy
	K 9 5 3	Your hand
2	A 9	Dummy
	K Q 10 6 3	Your hand

How do you play this suit for five winners?

3	K Q 10 9 8 3	Dummy
	4	Your hand
4	J 5 4	Dummy
	A K 9 6 2	Your hand

Solutions

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How do you play these suits for all the winners?

1	A J 6 4	Dummy
	K 9 5 3	Your hand

ANSWER: Lead low towards the Jack!

Cashing the King first may potentially drop East’s singleton Queen, but West’s 10872 will prevent you from taking all four tricks in the suit. Leading low to the Jack immediately will gain when WEST has the singleton Queen. This allows you to win Ace, cash the Jack, and take the marked finesse against East.

2	A 9	Dummy
	K Q 10 6 3	Your hand

ANSWER: Low to the A, then K, then Q.

Low to the Ace then running 9 can pick up Jxxx with East, but this will lose against West’s Jx and Jxx, whilst the opposite is true if you cash the honours from the top. West having Jx and Jxx will be more common than East having Jxxx.

How do you play this suit for five winners?

3	K Q 10 9 8 3	Dummy
	4	Your hand

ANSWER: Lead low towards the Ten!

Low towards the king, followed by the queen will only gain when East has Jx doubleton (also with West, but that cancels out as low to the ten wins on that too). Low towards the ten however will gain whenever West holds Jxx, and AJx.

4	J 5 4	Dummy
	A K 9 6 2	Your hand

ANSWER: Cash the Ace and King!

Taking a double finesse (run the jack, followed by small to the nine) only gains whenever East holds Q10x. Note that you don’t win when East holds Qxx since if the first trick goes J-Q-A-x, you will need to guess whether to play your other honour and drop West’s 10, or finesse against East’s remaining 10x. On the other hand, cashing AK will drop Qx doubleton in either hand. If you were playing this suit for four tricks, the play will be entirely different. I’ll let you try and figure that one out!