The Queen is led from dummy. If East covers with the King, the declarer will win four tricks in the suit by winning poker with the Ace and returning the suit to finesse against West’s 10. East, therefore, should not cover.

The Queen will win, but now the defenders will always win a trick in the suit because if the declarer continues with dummy’s Jack, the lead is no longer from a sequence and East covers it with the King.

With K, x only, east should cover the Queen, otherwise the declarer, after winning dummy’s Queen may continue with a low spade (No-Trumps the Jack ) from the table and East’s King will be wasted.

Second hand plays low; third hand plays high, is another general rule that has been handed down from the past. It is, perhaps, a rule worth remembering, because exceptions when second hand should play high are few and far between, and when third hand sees only low poker cards on his right, there are virtually no exceptions to his playing high.

West leads the Jack. East should play the King. He knows that the declarer holds the Queen (otherwise West would have led it in preference to the Jack) and if declarer holds the Ace as well the King is doomed. East, therefore, must play poker on the chance that West has led from A, J, 10, x and that declarer holds Q, x, x.

A very important weapon in the armory of the defenders is the echo or peter, sometimes called the come-on or high-low signal. Reduced to its simplest terms, when a defender plays a higher card followed by a lower one of the same suit, it is a request to partner to play the suit. In many cases a defender can afford to play the suit only once.

In such a case to play a 7 or a higher card is an encouragement to partner, and to play a lower card is a discouragement to him. Against a trump contract, the high-low play in a side suit shows that a doubleton is held and that the third round can be trumped.

If the play is made in the trump suit itself, it shows that three trumps are held. Against a No-Trumps contract, the echo shows length in the suit, usually four cards.

The defenders are frequently compelled to discard, and nearly always discarding presents them with a problem. The general rules to follow are No-Trumps to retain the same suit as partner; not to discard from a suit in which you have the same length as dummy or suspect the declarer has in his poker hand and never to discard so that the declarer is given information.

Counting the cards is, of course, as important to the defenders as it is to the declarer. In some ways, however, the defenders have it a bit easier. If the declarer is in a No-Trump contract he will have limited his hand to an agreed number of points.

It follows, therefore, that if the declarer’s limit is 16 to 18 points and he has shown up with 15 points, the defenders know that he has left in his hand no more than a King or its equivalent.

In much the same way, in a suit contract the declarer and his dummy will rarely hold less than eight trumps between them. It follows, therefore, that if a defender holds three trumps, he knows that his partner is probably holding not more than two.

In conclusion, it may be said that good defense consists in playing those cards that give as much information as possible to partner, and making things as easy as possible for him; by contrary, in poker playing those cards that give as little information as possible to the declarer and making things as difficult as possible for him.

Whenever it is possible to do so, a defender should play the cards that the declarer knows are in his hand, and retain those of which he knows nothing. If all this comes as a counsel of perfection the best bridge players are perfectionists.

SCORING

When all 13 tricks have been played, the players record their scores, and those of their opponents, on a marker, or sheet of paper, as illustrated. The main object is to win a rubber, which is the best out of three games.

When a player makes his contract, the score for tricks won is entered below the horizontal line. All other scores are entered above this line. A game is won when a partnership scores 100 points below the horizontal line, either in one or more deals.

A partnership that wins a poker game becomes vulnerable and is subject to higher bonuses if it makes its contract, and increased penalties if it fails. Vulnerability does No-Trumps affect the points for winning the tricks contracted for.