Sacrificing a Lady

As the reader has probably noticed, the majority of examples in this series involve sacrificing a queen led from our partner. As the famous Louis Watson once so eloquently wrote, "Never was a lady sacrificed for a better cause."(Watson's quote, however, was referring to the technique of unblocking.) Of course, an exception to this statement might be when we wish to sacrifice our partner!

The fact that I have chosen the queen in each example is not a mere coincidence. It so happens that in the majority of sacrificing situations, the queen is involved. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, holdings with voids and singletons occur less frequently than doubleton holdings. Thus we usually are not able to ruff until a third round of the suit.

Second, it is rare that we would be so bold as to ruff an ace or king from our partner. There do in fact exist extreme situations in which ruffing our partner's top honors will turn out to be brilliant, however, these occurrences are far and few between and should not demand much of our attention. We can therefore use the queen as another general indicator for any condition in which trumping our partner is optimal.

The Third principle

The third and final principle reason to sacrifice a partner's winning trick, is for the sake of an entry. The entry sacrifice can only be justified when we possess no other probable side-suit entries and our hand contains a suit that might allow our partner valuable discards. In other words, our partner may be in a better position to discard than we are. This is by far the most difficult situation to recognize, and usually requires a signal from our partner that he is short in a particular suit. The following conditions must be present to justify its use:

1. Your hand must contain no other probable side-suit entries to cash your winners.
2. You are able to deduce that your partner is likely the only player void in the suit that you control.

As you will notice, this situation has a tendency to occur earlier in the hand in comparison to the first two principle conditions. The following deal illustrates this quite well:

North A K J 7 9 2 K Q J 10 A 3 2 West Q 10 5 A K 7 9 6 5 2 K 10 9 East 9 6 2 8 6 5 4 A 7 4 Q J 4 South 8 4 3 Q J 10 3 8 3 8 7 6 5 The bidding: West North East South 4 5 1 4(!) West led the K

South, realizing that East/West had bid game, was forced to make the bidding total fourteen. West followed up by leading the A after the king. After seeing East's discouraging low-high signal, West decided to switch to the 5 (South of course, took note of his partner's high-low signal which promised a doubleton holding in their conventional system).

Everyone followed low as East took the trick with the A. East then led the Q which North took with the Ace. North led the K while noting South's completion of a high-low echo signal. Thus North decided to continue with the Q.

At this point, South quickly evaluated the situation. There were four important factors that helped South reach his decision:

1. North was out of hearts.
2. East likely held the club honors since he had led the queen earlier.
3. His own hand lacked any valuable discards, thus North might be in a better position to discard his club losers.
4. His hand was barren of any other definite entries.

Thus, South decided to ruff North's Q and then led his Q while North threw off a small club. The hand was reduced to the following situation:

North A K J 7 -- J 3 West Q 10 5 -- 9 K 10 East 9 6 2 8 -- J 4 South 8 4 J -- 8 7 6

South followed up with the J, and regardless of whether West chose to ruff or not, East/West were unable to fulfill their contract.

To conclude this series, I should remark that all three principles must sometimes be used simultaneously. In fact, the majority of situations presented will require that all three principles be applied in conjunction with one another. Consider this final deal which is simply a reconfiguration of the previous one:

North A K J 7 9 2 K Q J 10 9 A 3 West Q 6 5 A K 7 5 6 5 2 K 10 2 East 10 9 2 8 6 4 A 7 4 Q J 9 4 South 8 4 3 Q J 10 3 8 3 8 7 6 5

The first five tricks were played in the same order. When South ruffs North's Q at Trick 6, his ruff will ultimately serve a threefold purpose:

Thus, after South leads the Q, he switches to a spade lead which allows his side the remaining tricks.

Summary

Your partner may be in a better position for discarding purposes. At times, it might be required to take him out of the lead to allow for these critical discards.

When the following conditions apply, use the third principle of sacrificing your partner's winning trick:

1. Your hand lacks valuable discards.
2. Your only probable entry is a ruff.
3. Your partner is void in a suit that you control.
4. You can deduce that your partner is likely in a better position for discarding.

Commonly, one or more of the principles will be required to be used in conjunction.

Remember to use the queen lead as a general indicator for when a sacrifice situation might be present.

(A final note to the reader: This series examined a concept that is highly complex. Until the player feels comfortable with the basic principles of the play of the hand, none of these techniques should be applied. It is recommended that you practice with a regular partner so that it will become easier to read these situations correctly. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments. dustinst22@yahoo.com)

-- Dustin Stout