Mrs. McGillacutty, your student, asks you to play a one-session
women's pairs, but unfortunately you're the wrong sex. So you borrow
a wig and dress, and do your best. On the third round, you come up
against the top seed in the section. You pick up a nice hand, but
unfortunately Mrs. G doesn't seem to have much, and you end up
defending 4. You lead the king of clubs, and she plays the jack
(standard signals). How do you continue?

 South
   —
   —
   —
   —

Partner's jack of clubs is either a singleton or doubleton. If it's a
singleton, great - you can give her a ruff. So you lead the ace and
see Mrs. G and declarer follow small. What do you do at trick three?

 South
   —
   —
   —
   —

You should play another club to destroy that queen in dummy. Partner
ruffs and declarer overruffs. Good! (Except that dummy gives you the
eye. She's never seen you before and your nice play is suspicious.)
Next declarer leads the 5 of diamonds. What do you play?

 South
   —
   —
   —
   —

This is a tough one. If you play the 3, you know that declarer will
finesse. Is there any reason to play the king instead of the 3? If
South has the jack-third or jack-fourth, it won't matter, but if
South has jack doubleton, the play of the king would give declarer
another trick. On the other hand, if you play the 3, can it cost you?

South probably holds the A-Q of spades and A-Q of hearts for her
opening bid. If you follow with the 3 of diamonds, declarer may be
able to endplay you on the next round of diamonds. For example,
suppose she plays the queen from dummy, leads two rounds of trumps
back to her hand and leads a second diamond. Your king hits the
table, and she plays low from dummy. You're now endplayed. That's a
very good reason to play the king the first time.

 South
   —
   —
   —
   —

On this hand, if you followed with the 3 of diamonds the first time,
declarer would endplay you on the next round of diamonds (after
drawing trumps). So it was the winning move to play the king on the
5. Nicely done! says South at the end of the hand. But North leans
over and pulls your wig off! Oh, no! You take North aside and explain
that you must finish the session to get your pay check, and North
sympathizes. She agrees to keep your secret hush-hush ... on the
condition that you partner her in the Mixed Pairs that evening!

THE END

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 South
   A Q J 8 7 3
   A Q
   9 6 5
   10 4

South 1 4	West 2 all pass	North 3*	East pass
* limit raise

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