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Show (EASY lessons in f AUCTION BRIDGE : r 4 I Br PAUL H. SEYMOUR 1 f Au'.hof "HifhlihU M Aoctioo Bridf I ., , . - 7--g- - 9 (Copyright. b Hoyl. Jr.) Artlsle Seventeen. j Senior' Play to a Declared Trump (Continued.) ..... -t-IIE "rule ot eleven" u9 8,atca 81 1 Hie close of Hie lust article l: If thv number of spots on the card led (fourih best of leader's suit) be subtracted from eleven It will tell the number of curds lu that suit above the one led which are in the other three hands." After senior's first lead dummy B cards are spread on the table Immediately. Immedi-ately. Thus Junior and the. declarer each can tell at once how many cards the other one holds above the one led. t,i i,,.i id liiL'h as the sis or IM IJfU IIIIO - - " seven It frequently gives very valuable information. Suppose, for Instance, that senior opens by leading the six of clubs, that dummy contains the ten, nine, seven and four, and that declarer holds the Ace, Queen and three spot. Six from eleven Is live, which means that there are only live clubs above the six spot in the three hands held bv dummy, Junior and the declarer. In this case the declarer can see all five of these cards In his two hands and so knows at once that Junior cannot can-not cover the six spot. He would ther.-fore play the seven from dummy and would not need to play the Queen from his own baud. In the same way Junior often obtains Information of value by applying this rule. Kettivnlng to a further consideration of senior's leads. It frequently happens that he does not have any combination combina-tion which is recognized as desirable from which to lead, and that he must ntake a choice between several undesirable unde-sirable ones. In this case a singleton often may be led to advantage. If senior holds several small trumps which will be of no use because declarer will draw them out as soon as he gets the lead, a singleton lend may enable Junior to take the trick and lead back so that senior may win a trick by trumping. Suppose.- for instance, that senior leads the eight of clubs when declarer de-clarer is playing a heart declaration. Suppose that dummy has the King. Jack and several small ones and that Junior holds the Ace, ten and one or more small ones. Junior spplies the rule of eleven and finds that this is not a' fourth best lead (because he can see four hlt'her ones); tnereio.e he knows that It must be a singleton. In suoh case be would win with his Ace and lead the suit back at once. The fact that the King Is In dummy would deter Junior from leading it hack unless , he recognized senior's lend as a singleton. This again shows the benefit of the rule of eleven. The lead of a singleton is not wise when holding three trumps to the Queen, or four to the Jack, because in such case the trumps are too valuable In order to embarrass declarer when he starts to draw them out. The suit should not be weakened by using even one for rutllng. . The order of preference best to be observed for an original lend at a declared de-clared trump may be stated as follows fol-lows : , (1) A from A K and no others. C") K from A K and others. (3) Top of a three;card sequence. (4) Top of a -two-card sequence. (5) 'A singleton (provided hand has four or less small" trumps). . (() A doubleton. , (7) Any four-card suit except with a tenace or Ace or King, unaccompa- . nled by another honor. For (7) the order of prefnr:? would be: (a) x x x X (d) KuX (b) K J 10 x (e) A x x x (c) KJtX f) A Q x x Note: x means any card below the ten The card in black type Is the one which should be led. , After we have. stated that the adversaries ad-versaries in a declared trump seldom make more than their aces and kings and that usually It is best to take tricks with them as soon as possible. It may cause some surprise that the rules should go on to put such combinations combi-nations as A xxx and AQxx at the very bottom of the list of desirable leads and advocate the lead of a small club from the following hand being played at a heart declaration: S Axxx: H x ; D-AQtx: i C x xxx However, there are special spe-cial reasons for avoiding bot,h the spade and the diamond suits in this hand which apply to all similar om-blnatlons om-blnatlons When holding Ace and severed sev-ered small cards It Is not wise to lead the Ace because you may thereby es tahlish this suit for the declarer while If you retain the Ace you may be able to prevpnt his establishing this suit A major tenace (Ace-Queen) ts a combination com-bination which is very apt to take two tricks If It Is led up to: but If the Ace Is led. the Queen cannot possibly lake the second trick and is likely to be trumped on the third round. There foro thosp two combinations are the least desirable of all of the lends listed. When Junior has shown his strong suit by making a bid senior may wotl make 'he opening lead in it if he has no favorable opening of his own. In this case senior should lend ht ! highest card of tje suit when holding three ur, less; hid If holdlne four ot , more he .should. lead fourth hest antes holding r)p Kce or two or more honor i In sequence. w'nen he should cpon wlrr : t,ia higher .honor . , r : ' - " - ' .,,-.V -M . - f . . v. :i . V?-- |