Tell Them What They Know

	♠ 5 ♥ K 9 7 4 2 ♦ 9 4 3 ♣ A 10 9 8
	N W E S	♠ K J 6 ♥ Q J 5 3 ♦ A Q 10 5 ♣ K 7

West	North	YOU	South
			1 ♠
Pass	1 NT1	Pass	2 ♠
All pass

forcing one round

The first three tricks went:

• Partner's fourth-best ♣ 4 to your king
• Your ♣ 7, declarer's ♣ J, partner's ♣ Q, dummy's ♣ A
• ♠ 5 from dummy, you played low, declarer's ♠ Q held, partner played the ♠ 2

Then declarer played the ♠ A, partner the ♠ 7, and declarer discards a heart from dummy. You have the king and jack of spades. Whichever spade you play, the other one is good. Does it make a difference which spade you play?

ANSWER: Play the ♠ K. Don't give away the spade suit position to declarer by playing the ♠ J.

It would be easy to just play the ♠ J by rote, thinking that it doesn't matter. If you've read previous articles here about helping partner figure out your hand, it might be tempting to play the ♠ J as a suit-preference signal for diamonds. But partner doesn't know for sure that you hold the king; from her perspective, declarer might have started with the ♠ AKQ and is just adding some confusion for the defense (always a good idea for declarer!).

If you play the ♠ J, declarer (who already knows you have the king) will realize that you started with exactly three spades. If declarer has exactly six spades she will clear both remaining spades by leading one more round. But if she thinks partner might have started with four spades to the jack-ten or jack-nine, clearing spades might not be an appealing line of play.

THE PRINCIPLE: All else equal, play the card you are known to hold. This is an important principle for declarer as well as for defenders. When playing to a trick where the opponents already know that you have a specific card in that suit, don't choose some other equivalent card in the suit. Don't reveal extra information about your hand without the clear expectation of some extra benefit.

The complete hand:

	♠ 5 ♥ K 9 7 4 2 ♦ 9 4 3 ♣ A 10 9 8
♠ 9 7 2 ♥ 10 8 6 ♦ J 8 2 ♣ Q 6 5 4	N W E S	♠ K J 6 ♥ Q J 5 3 ♦ A Q 10 5 ♣ K 7
	♠ A Q 10 8 4 3 ♥ A ♦ K 7 6 ♣ J 3 2

-- Ray 

Better Bridge in 5 Minutes. Guaranteed! (or the next one is free)