D10A COVER AN HONOUR WITH AN HONOUR

An Honour card is the A, K, Q, J, or 10. 'Touching' honours are cards of adjacent rank, e.g. J 10.

1. When declarer leads an honour card either from hand or dummy , and you have a higher honour, you usually cover so as to promote a trick in partner's hand or in your own hand.

Example; You are defending as West and South leads the ªQ.

You as West should cover the ª Q with the ª K.

a) If you play a small card, South will subsequently finesse the Jack and make all 4 tricks

b) If you 'cover' with the King, East will take the third trick with the 10.

Note that you can't see the 10, you must hope that partner has it.

2. If you can see two 'touching' honours, as a matter of principle, you should not cover the first honour but wait and cover the second.

Example; You are defending as East and North the dummy leads the ªQ.

a) If you cover the Queen, South will win and subsequently finesse against partner's 10 to make all 4 tricks.

b) If you play low on the Queen for the first trick and subsequently covered the Jack on the second trick, partner's 10 is now promoted for the third trick.

3. There are exceptions! Here are 3 common situations where you would not cover.

a) When you know that partner has no card to promote. i.e. from the bidding and from the cards that you can see in your hand and dummy.

b) When you believe that declarer is 'fishing' for the Queen of trumps and hopes that you will cover the Jack or 10 with your Queen where there is a two way finesse.

e.g. when the trump suit is ª A J 8 6 opposite ª K 10 9 3

(Try not to hesitate when declarer plays the Jack or 10 and you have the Queen!)

c) When declarer or dummy is short in the suit and your honour card cannot be 'dropped'

e.g. In no trumps, you are West with ª K 6 5 and North in Dummy has ª A 3. Declarer South plays the ª Q. Save your King until the third trick.