“DUCKING”
When a hand contains no re-entry card, the successful play of the long suit may depend on a refusal to win the first trick; at times both the first and second tricks in the suit must be passed.
When you wish to make a long suit in a hand containing no re-entry card, do not play the commanding card of the suit until you are reasonably sure that the remainder of the cards will fall. Use care not to exhaust the shorter of the two hands before the suit is established.
The situation is more clearly shown by the following examples:
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The dealer should refuse to win the first round of the suit. With no card of re-entry, should he lead the ace and king, the command would be left with the adversaries and the suit would not be made.
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The dealer must allow the adversaries to win the first and second tricks; otherwise the suit cannot be made.
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The dealer should lead the queen toward the ace, but should the second in hand adversary cover with the king the dealer must pass the trick; otherwise the third round will be blocked by the nine or ten.
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The dealer should pass the first trick and not attempt the queen finesse until the second round. One trick, it is true, may be lost, but the play may win four tricks.
One or two leads of a suit may show a distribution of the cards which must give the adversary one trick. When this is the case, be careful to lose that trick while you have still another card of the suit to lead to the opposite hand.
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The dealer finds at the first lead that the second in hand adversary has no card of the suit. The jack is, therefore, three times protected in the opposite hand and the dealer should pass the first trick.
With nine cards of a suit in the combined hands headed by ace and king, all the remaining cards will probably fall on two leads, but when the suit is divided, six and three, with no card of re-entry in the long hand, it is safer to make sure of five tricks by passing the first round.
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Even when there is a re-entry card in the hand containing the long suit, if the adversaries must make a trick in the suit it is better play to lose the first trick. The re-entry may be an important card to retain.
When you hold a guarded honour in the suit led originally, or with a once-guarded king in an unopened suit, place the lead so that these honours will be lead up to. This can often be done by “ducking” or passing a trick.