THE THIRD HAND.
(See also "Whist Developments." De La Rue & Co.)
In the first round of a suit, you should generally
8. PLAY YOUR HIGHEST CARD THIRD HAND,
in order to strengthen your partner. You presume that he leads from his strong suit, and wants to get the winning cards of it out of his way; you, therefore, do not finesse, but play your highest, remembering that you play the lowest of a sequence.
With ace, queen (and, of course, ace, queen, knave, &c., in sequence) you do finesse, for, in this case, the finesse cannot be left to your partner. In trumps you may finesse ace, knave, if an honour is turned up to your right. Some players finesse knave with king, knave, &c.; but it is contrary to principle to finesse in your partner's strong suit.
If your partner leads a high card originally, you assume it is led from one of the combinations given in the Analysis of Leads (pp. [64]-71), and your play third hand must be guided by a consideration of the combination led from. With ace, you pass queen led; you are then in much the same position as though a small card were led, and you finessed with ace, queen.