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Let's
play a little…
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Blockages
Sometimes, when a suit is
unevenly distributed between declarer and dummy, there is a risk of blockage.
For example with:-
in hand : K 2
in dummy : A Q 6 4
If you play the Ace first and then the 4 for the King, you are blocked in hand and cannot get into dummy to make the Queen.
To avoid that, remember the simple rule: play high and short:
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first play the
high card(s) of the short
hand then the low card of the short
hand to the high cards of the long
hand
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Here you play the King first (and the 4 from dummy) then the 2 towards the Ace and the Queen.
This principle also applies to establishing masters:
| K 3 |  |
Q J 10 2 |
If you start with the 3 towards
the 10, the opponent can take the trick; the situation then becomes:
| K | |
Q J 2 and the suit is blocked. |
Avoid this by playing the King first.
Favourable splits
Sometimes a contract is only won if the missing cards of a suit are evenly split between the opponents. For example, if in a certain suit, you have in hand A 3 2 and in dummy K Q 5 4, if the opponents each have three of the six missing cards, the 4 of dummy will make a trick after you have played Ace, King and Queen.