A few prayers

never did 

anybody 

any harm.

Unblocking 

Note that there is some overlap between this page and the page on entries.

We speak of a suit as blocked when a high card in declarer's or dummy's hand is hindering the natural flow of tricks.

East/West are unable to take three tricks in this suit without the help of another entry in the West hand  which may not be forthcoming. In the play, we must take this ace as early as possible to facilitate the later play of the king and queen.

With two suits like this, the one we should play first depends upon which hand has other entries.

If there is eg only one other entry in dummy and none in declarer's hand, we must take the ace of hearts first, then over to the ace of spades and take the king and queen of hearts. Dummy's entry will enable us to take the king and queen of spades later.

If, on the other hand, declarer has the only entry between the two hands, we must take the ace of spades first, enter dummy with the ace of hearts and take the king and queen of spades. Declarer's entry will enable us to take the king and queen of hearts later.

Sometimes, careless play in a very simple situation can lead to a blocked suit.

Suppose dummy has no other entries. It is vital that declarer has the ace and queen out of the way before taking the king on the third round. If she does it the other way round-king first, then ace and queen, access to the two small cards is blocked.

This next one is quite subtle. See if you can spot the problem in running this suit if dummy has no other entries.

Probably not difficult when your attention is focused on unblocking, but many a declarer would miss it at the table ! Email me if you still can't see it!

Often the unblocking must be spotted at trick one.

The contract is 3NT, and a spade is led. Play from dummy and declarer before reading on.

You have ten tricks if you can get at them all (three spades, one heart and six diamonds).

Clearly, the diamond ace must be played on trick two, but how are you going to get into dummy to take the rest of the diamond tricks ? Only through the spade queen or jack. You may already have gone wrong at trick one if you let the queen of spades hold the trick. You must unblock your spade ace or king so that the humble two of spades across to the jack will give access to the diamonds on the table once the ace has been played.

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