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Answers to quiz on third hand play
    

  1. Play the Jack. If partner has led fourth highest, declarer has only two cards in this suit, so you must continue it as soon as you get the chance. The card you lead is immaterial. We don't know who holds the Ace, but it doesn't matter.
  2. Play the 10. Partner holds a four-card suit headed by the Ace, the King or both the Ace and the King . Continue with the Q. Unless partner holds both the Ace and the King, declarer is always going to take one trick in this suit. It is important to set up partner's fourth card.
  3. Play the 10. Partner has four cards, declarer only two. Continue with the Queen.
  4. Play the King. Partner is not petering, so you cannot give her a ruff. Move to another suit and keep your Ace over the Queen.
  5. Play the Queen. There is a fair chance here that partner has a doubleton, so continue with the Ace, and if the peter is confirmed, give her a ruff.
  6. Play the 9. Partner has a four-card suit. Continue with the Queen. You will lose at most one trick in this suit.
  7. Play the 10. This doesn't  look like a peter, so switch to another suit. If declarer plays the 2, it confirms it as a non-peter. If a canny declarer doesn't play the 2, she might still have it.
  8. Play the 9 to encourage if partner will understand. Otherwise, play the 6. Your A J over dummy's King is a perfect position. It looks as if partner has a doubleton.
  9.  If it is the fourth highest, then declarer has no cards higher than the 7 (rule of 11), so play your 3 or 4. It looks as if partner has led from A K 8 7. If declarer wins the trick with the 8, have words with partner afterwards.
  10. Play the 9 or the 2 (see answer 8 above). It looks like a doubleton, so you want to give partner a ruff. 
  11. Play the 8 and continue with the Jack. Declarer has only two cards in this suit, and you might as well reap the benefit of it straightaway.
  12. You must overtake with the Ace and return the suit at once, otherwise it will be blocked. Partner has K Q or K Q J, and you will either run the suit in no-trumps, or get a ruff in a trump contract.
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There are people who have no head for cards. It is impossible not to feel sorry for them, for what, one asks oneself, can the future offer them when the glow of youth has departed and advancing years force them, as they force all of us, to be spectators rather than actors in the comedy of life.

To  have learned to play a good game of bridge is the safest insurance against the tedium of old age. Throughout life, one might find in cards endless entertainment and occupation for idle hours that rests the mind and exercises the intelligence.

Attributed to W Somerset Maugham