High Card from the Short Side - Defence

I have talked about Declarer playing the High card from the Short Side in this post:
Declarer Play - High Cards from the Short Side

This is standard declarer play. I think it is the first thing I teach my students about declarer play and it is something that the experts do. The reason why it works so well is that by doing this the suit does NOT get blocked.

Does it matter if you are playing in NT or a suit? No. You play High Cards from the Short Side first.
Does it matter if the suit is black or red? A major or a minor? Pointy or round? No. You play High Cards from the Short Side first.
Does it matter if the suit is trump or not? No. You play High Cards from the Short Side first.

So, in short, it is the IDEAL way to play the suit.

In fact it does not even matter if you are Declarer OR on Defence. The concept remains the same. High Card from the Short Side.

But it is QUITE a bit more difficult on Defence. Let's see this in action:

	Dummy
	763
Partner's Lead		Your holding
K		A2

Declarer calls for a low card from Dummy. What card do you play?

Think about it and answer honestly.

Do you need to know what the contract is? No. You will do the same thing in NT and also trump.

Does it matter what the suit is? No. You will do the same thing if this is a major or a minor, a black suit or a red suit, or a pointy suit or a round suit.

You should OVERTAKE your Partner's winning trick with your Ace and play back the suit.

It seems strange. Partner is winning the trick after all. But what happens if you play low? Partner will continue the suit and you will win this trick. But you have no more of the suit to return to Partner.

Let's say this is the holding:

	Dummy
	763
Partner's Holding		Your holding
KQJT9		A2
	Declarer's holding
	854

Try dealing out these cards at home. Pretend the contract is 3NT. How are you and Partner going to defeat the contract? You have to OVERTAKE Partner's opening lead and play back the suit. If you don't, Partner will win the trick. Then they will play the suit again. You will win the trick. But how do you get back to Partner's winning tricks?

You can't.