[wizards]

Hello everyone,

Play 3NT
Partner lead a 2 (4th best)

Dummy shows a singleton 4

I was being question on why I play J with QJT7 in the third hand and I forget the reason.
Anyone could share the reason?
It would also be great if anyone can quote the book with this topic

Thanks

[Bbradley62]

Because you're trying to mislead everyone else at the table.

[Stephen Tu]

The idea is this:
Say partner led from A982, and is going to get in again. If you play the T, and declarer wins K, partner may be under the impression that declarer has the Qx(xx) left, and that he needs to get you on lead, while in fact you can just cash out. OTOH, if you play the J, partner will reason that either you have the Q, in which case he should lead low, or that declarer started with KQT, in which case underleading the ace probably won't cost anything.

I think it was probably some Marshall Miles book where I first saw this idea presented, forget which one. Likely his defensive signals book. It's a falsecard intended to influence partner to do the right thing later.

[mikeh]

That's a nice analysis, and one I had never seen before. I don't know how practical it is in the modern game, with many experts playing some form of smith, and in any event on many hands partner can either find your entry or know that you can't have one or one that works in time, so has to play you for QJ10 anyway, but the notion meshes well with what I know about the way Miles played the game: brilliantly and often unorthodoxly.

[kuhchung]

cool

[HighLow21]

Mike Lawrence covered this topic as well in Dynamic Defense. Yes, J is the right card.