Tutorial

Bidding Defence Declarer

You deserve a certificate if you've got this far !

Playing your honour in second position (continued)

6) So, we are finally at the nitty-gritty---what is normally referred to as 'covering an honour'. You are still playing second, and now we are assuming that an honour has been led, and your honour is a card other than the Ace---usually the King or the Queen.

Note that the sole reason for 'covering an honour' (ie playing yours on top of theirs), is that you hope to promote something for your side when the opponents honours have all gone. We shall develop some 'rules' for helping you in this situation, but this basic principle never changes.

6.1) Consider first, the lead from dummy.

rule 1: When following dummy, cover any single (ie unsupported) honour that is led. In the cases below, you can see that when the Queen is covered by the King, you promote a trick for your side. Failure to cover results in at least one trick less.

Exceptions to rule one are :-

6.2) We are still leading from dummy.

rule 2: When dummy has a sequence of honours, don't cover the first one led. In the first case below, covering the first honour led gives declarer a finesse position against partner's 10, while in the second example, there is no chance that covering will promote anything since you can see all the high cards except the Ace.

7) When declarer  leads an honour from his own hand, the same two rules above apply, but as you cannot see the hand on lead, it is usually safer to assume that the honour led is unsupported ie you cover it.

Possible exceptions are:-

That was quite a packet, wasn't it. I suggest that you go away and play now, for six months or so, putting these principles to the test. Then, return to this page, reread it, and then try this quiz.