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Home > Tutorial > Defence > General principles in defence > Playing your honour in second position
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Playing your honour in second position
'Second hand plays low' has been handed down as good advice since the days of whist, but it is not so clear as it might appear.
If you hold one or more honours in second position, whether you play it will depend upon
- Is your holding a single honour or more ?
- Is the lead a small card or an honour ?
- Is the lead from dummy or declarer ?
- Can I take the trick, and if so, can I do so with a card other than an Ace ?
Note that Aces are special. They are there to take opponents honours if possible.
Note also that you must make up your mind early, before this key suit is played. To hesitate will give valuable information to the opponents, and in some circumstances may be unethical.
Note that in all the situations on this page, trumps are not an issue. The contract may be trumps or no-trumps, and the suit in question may be trumps or not.
1) The more honours you hold, the more likely you are to play one, in any circumstance. In the four cases below, second player should always play an honour. This is pretty obvious.
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2) Consider, now, a small card led through a single honour where you cannot take the trick. Don't play it. Equally obvious, perhaps.
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3) Now consider a small card led through a single honour where you can take the trick( but not with an Ace). Take it ! Pretty obvious.
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4) Now consider a small card led through your Ace. Don't play it ! Even if there's a fair chance that the lead is from a singleton, the apparent trick lost will nearly always be recouped elsewhere. Not quite so clear now, is it !
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5) Now consider that an honour has been led. With an Ace, most of the time you will take it, unless entries to dummy are a consideration when you might hold up.
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| Origins of playing-cards and
present-day suits
Playing cards arrived in Europe in the period 1220-1400, different authors ascribing different times. The country of origin is also unsure, with China and India as front-runners. A pack of 'Mamluk' playing cards discovered in an Istanbul museum are said to be 'unquestionably the first genuine example of playing cards originating in a Mediterranean Islamic country.' The 'Mamelukes' ruled in Egypt from approximately 1254-1517. The Mameluk pack takes the form:-
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