| LESSON FOUR SOLUTIONS | ||||||||
| 1) | Who has the ace? | |||||||
| Declarer must have the ace since partner must play his highest | ||||||||
| honor when the dummy has small cards. | ||||||||
| Who has the ten? | ||||||||
| Declarer must also have the ten since the play of the jack denies | ||||||||
| holding the ten (if he had jack-ten he must play the lower of | ||||||||
| touching equals. | ||||||||
| 2) | Who has the jack? | |||||||
| Declarer must since partner's play of the queen denies holding the | ||||||||
| jack. If he had QJ he would have played the Jack instead of the queen. | ||||||||
| How many might partner have started with? | ||||||||
| 2 or 4 (the return of the 2 has to be his lowest card which is either his | ||||||||
| original 4th best OR his only card left.) | ||||||||
| 3) | Account for all the missing cards… | |||||||
| Hmmmm… partner played the ten - that's his highest card. | ||||||||
| That means declarer has the ace. He played the king (the sneaky so & so). | ||||||||
| He also has the queen. I have the jack. Partner played the ten - that means | ||||||||
| declarer has the nine as well (partner would play the 9 if he had the ten and | ||||||||
| nine. Therefore: declarer has the ace, king, queen, nine. | ||||||||
| How many spades did partner start with? | ||||||||
| Hmmm… I have 5, dummy has 3, and I know declarer has at least 4 | ||||||||
| spades (ace, king, queen and nine). 5 + 3 + 4 = 12 cards. That leaves | ||||||||
| partner with only one spade! His ten is a singleton! | ||||||||
| 4) | Who has the jack? | |||||||
| Partner's return of the ten, denies the jack because if he had 2 touching | ||||||||
| honors (jack and ten) he would return the higher of touching honors (remember, | ||||||||
| when following play the lowest of touching - when leading play the top of | ||||||||
| touching. | ||||||||
| Who has the queen? | ||||||||
| If partner had ace, queen, ten, small (he can't have any more because declarer | ||||||||
| had one spade and there are only 13 cards in the spade suit) he would return | ||||||||
| the 'small' (his original 4th best). We also know he doesn't have 4 cards . | ||||||||
| because the jack would have been declarer's only card. He played | ||||||||
| small to trick one! Since partner can't have 4 spades, then If partner had 3, the | ||||||||
| ace, queen, ten, then he would have returned the queen. When holding | ||||||||
| two cards in the suit, lead the higher. Therefore - | ||||||||
| Declarer has the queen and the jack. | ||||||||
| 5) | Partner leads the 2, dummy plays low, you play | |||||||
| K73 | ||||||||
| WEST | EAST | answer | ||||||
| ♠ 2 | a) | ♠ AQ9 | Q | |||||
| b) | ♠ QT5 | Q | ||||||
| c) | ♠ AJ9 | J | ||||||
| d) | ♠ A64 | A | ||||||
| e) | ♠ QJT4 | T | ||||||
| f) | ♠ AJT9 | 9 | ||||||
| g) | ♠ AT8 | T | ||||||
| h) | ♠ J9 | J | ||||||