| Holding Weakly Guarded Ace or King
Holdings of the Ace or King of Spades present a unique set of problems to players of all levels. An agonizing decision is what to pass when dealt A-x-x (sometimes called "Ace third") or K-x-x in the Spade suit. ("x" is a spot card from the 2 thru the 10). With A or K doubleton, the high Spade should be passed. Some players like to keep A-x-x or K-x-x in order to guard against receiving the Spade Queen. If that does occur, the holder will now have A-Q-x-x or K-Q-x-x. Others like to keep Ace or King third, and void the Club or Diamond suit, hoping for a discarding situation.
A very neat maneuver is to pass the Ace of Clubs (if you have it) to the left, and hope that player takes the first trick in Clubs and leads a Spade. Then you will have a nice opportunity to play your big Spade in fourth position. However, keeping the high Spade with only two small "backers" is still risky. Only once in three times will your passer be dealt the Queen, and then not always will he pass her to you. Even if you do end up with A-Q-x-x or K-Q-x-x, your Queen is still weakly guarded, and Spades must split 4-3-3-3 to avoid a smoke out of the lady! More importantly, if you are not passed the Queen, your Ace or King may be led through, and you may be forced to go high on the third round -- and then it will be curtains! I have seen the Ace or King get skewered (speared) by the player who holds the Queen and knows (by counting) one of these cards is "bare" in someone's hand. And you may rest assured that good players know how to count! Why go through all of this grief? In short -- pass the Ace or King when holding two or less accompanying spot cards.
The best pass from A-K-x-x (a sort of double headache) is to split the high cards, and pass the Ace (only). This leaves you with one headache, and a chance to escape. I know this transposes to the original position of K-x-x, but the position of the Ace in back of the King is somewhat reassuring. With a terrible hand, you might want to keep both high cards, and dump your Heart suit in an attempt to go for the moon. The alternate choice is to pass both high Spades. I suggest strongly that you also pass a middle Heart in order to protect against a Moon. A-x-x-x or K-x-x-x (Ace or King with three guards) are always best kept intact. You will rarely get burned with this holding, and the pass of the Spade Queen will give a safe Queen fifth (Queen and four backers) suit. The additional low card provides a comfort level, and only a bad layout of the suit (a Spade stack of four cards to your right, and the guarded Queen to your left, will hurt you). Careful counting of Spades will provide an extra opportunity to avoid the Queen in many situations. The location of the Queen will also decide the outcome of most hands. The creator of Hearts must have been a fiendish person, as there are so many obstacles to avoid. The Moon is bad enough -- and the big Spades can be one royal pain! | |
