Ellensburg Daily Record – Jul 11, 1955
When you have a choice of plays, do you sometimes arrive at a quick conclusion that it makes no difference which one you choose? Such a conclusion is seldom correct.
Often the advantage of one play over another is hard to see. But it pays to make a good try at diagnosing each situation as it comes up with the thought in mind that your decision WILL make a difference in the final result.
There are problems of this kind peculiar to each of the four posicion at the table. In the following series of articles I want to show you a few problems of the third hand—that is the third player in play to a trick.
Some Advantages
Even at the first trick, third hand has a few advantages the opening leader did not have. He has had a chance to look at the dummy and also to see two cards which have already been played. Of course there is one player (declarer) who will play to the trick after him.
He must be alert to capitalize on what he can see. He cannot allow best online casino to be careless or to depend on old worn out maxims for his decisions. Look at what happened to Mr. Abel in today”s deal. Mrs. Keen opened a small trump and he automatically played his queen (third hand high, you know). Mr. Dale won, cashed his ace and king of hearts and ruffed a heart on the board.
No Overruff
He returned to his hand with the ace of clubs and ruffed his last heart. Note that Mr. Abel was powerless to overruff. Getting along much better than he had expected, Mr. Dole now led a diamond to his king, losing to the ace. A club was returned and he ruffed, picked up the outstanding trumps, cashed the queen of diamonds and made his contract.
He had won two hearts, a diamond, a club and no less than six trump tricks.
What did Mr Abel think he would gain by going up with the queen of spades at trick one? Did he think his partner had led from three trumps to the Jack? Extremely unlikely on the bidding. Did he think he had led from the king doubleton of trumps? Extremely unlikely on ordinary common sense. If he had played small, he could have overruffed dummy on the fourth lead of hearts and after that Mr. Dale would have found the going much too tough to bring in 10 tricks.