Third Hand High? (Part One)

Thomas Rush

PlayBridgeWithThomas@gmail.com

Last month we looked at an exception to the “second hand low” rule.  What about “third hand high”?  Does that have exceptions, too?

Yes – there are common exceptions to that rule, and we’ll discuss one of them here, plus more on the same subject next month.  

This situation comes up pretty often: suppose partner leads a low Spade against a no trump and the layout is like this:

        Dummy

        ♠Q75

                        You

                        ♠KT4

When declarer calls a low card from dummy, if you’ve blindly incorporated “third hand high!” into your principles, you’ll probably play the King.  You’ll be disappointed when, as often happens, declarer takes your King with the Ace, and runs off enough tricks to make his contract (and overtricks?) when partner has led from Jxxxx.  

Experience shows that you’re far better off overall to play the Ten and keep your King positioned over dummy’s Queen, and this leads to the “more perfect” rule of “third hand high”, at least against No Trump contracts: “Third hand high – unless you have a tenace position over dummy’s honor, in which case play the next highest card that makes sense.”

“But what if declarer wins a cheap trick with his Jack?”, you might be wondering.  Let’s look at the situation for a moment.  Suppose declarer started with the singleton or doubleton Jack of Spades in the example above. Sure, your King wins the first trick, maybe even drops the singleton Jack… but then when you lead back a Spade, declarer’s Queen will still be a stopper (declarer plays dummy’s Queen (or not) after partner has played or ducked his Ace).  So the result is, you get the AK, and declarer gets his spade trick.  Declarer always is entitled to one spade trick.  It’s the same result if declarer started with Jxx.

But what if your partner has underled the Spade Jack, or even the J9?  Now going up with the King in third seat gives declarer two certain spade stoppers, while playing the Ten on the first round means that he may only get the one trick (Ace) he started with, as you retain your King to beat dummy’s Queen when it is played.

Your side seriously profits when you play the Ten one the hands where partner has underled the AJxx(x) of Spadesx.  Your Ten wins trick 1, and if you can determine that partner has in fact underled his AJ, you can now cash the King and lead your spot card to partner’s AJ, taking the first four or five Spade tricks instead of giving declarer an undeserved stopper.

The same basic principle applies if you hold the Q9x over dummy’s J, or the ATx or AJx over dummy’s Queen or King

Remember that we’ve been discussing defense against No Trump here.  When defending a suit contract, the need to take tricks right now may make it more important for you to play your highest card immediately (the right play depends on the contract, the auction, the rest of your hand, your partner’s lead proclivities, and… well, it’s complicated!  

We’ll take a look at another common and interesting case next month.  In the meantime, will you be looking for times when it’s right for third hand to do something other than play high?