UNBLOCKING
There is frequent necessity in the dealer’s play for ridding one hand of high cards in order not to interrupt the lead of smaller cards from the other hand. It is well to look ahead and prepare for this contingency, for often in the middle of a hand you will quite unexpectedly find that unblocking will enable you to make small cards that the adversaries have made good by reckless discarding.
When you hold more cards of a suit in one hand than in the other, you can invariably prevent blocking, if you lead or play the high cards from the shorter hand. At times a suit may be unblocked by discarding the winning card or cards from one hand, but the first rule covers the majority of cases where there is necessity for unblocking.
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In both of the above examples the dealer, holding nine cards of a suit in the combined hands, hopes to catch the queen by leading the ace and king. Blocking in these cases can be avoided by retaining the lowest card in the dummy hand.
When you hold but one re-entry card, be careful not to take a finesse, which will block your suit.
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In the above examples dummy is supposed to hold one re-entry card in another suit. Should the dealer make an unsuccessful finesse, the adversary will at once take out the re-entry card, and the suit, being blocked, cannot be made.