Bridge Tips - Play of the Cards, No. 7 - McKenny With a Ruff

1. The opponents are in a contract of 3♥ , after the sequence 1♥ – 3♥. With the following hand, what do you lead and then continue?

♠ AK932    ♥ 54        ♦ 863        ♣ A73

Answer: -
There’s a chance that partner has a doubleton spade and partner will get a ruff. So lead the King of spades, asking partner to give you a count, (remember, Ace for Attitude, King for Kount). If partner does follow high and dummy has three spades, you can play your Ace of spades and then continue for a ruff, as declarer has three spades.

But what does partner then return – why not tell him? If you play your two of spades after the KA, then you are giving a ‘McKenney Signal’, telling him to return the lower of his other two suits – clubs in this case. If partner has the QJ of clubs, he can then trap declarer’s King and you will take them off with your two Spades, a ruff and two clubs. If partner had been on a guess and had led back a diamond, you might not have made your two club tricks to set the contract.
Similarly, if you had some good diamonds instead of clubs, you would play the 9 of spades asking for the higher suit to be returned – diamonds. 


2. Declarer North is in a contract of 3♠ with no other suits bid. Partner leads the King and Ace of clubs to which you play the eight, then the four, to show an even number of cards. Dummy is as follows: -

                        South
♠ AK93    ♥ 94        ♦ 965        ♣ QJ62

Partner then continues with the three of clubs, which you ruff successfully. Your hand is: -

♠ J42        ♥ QJT     ♦ QJT32   ♣ 84

What do you play next?


Answer: -
Partner has continued with his lowest club, the three of clubs, which is a McKenney Signal calling for a return of the lowest suit – diamonds. Hopefully he has the Ace of diamonds and you can make next two tricks by leading the Queen of diamonds, taking them at least one off. Without his signal, you would be on a blind guess, and declarer has a further club for a discard in hand once he has taken out trumps – if he started out with four spades, four hearts, three clubs and a doubleton diamond, the discard of one of his diamonds on the club may well make the contract.

3. Declarer South is in a contract of 3♥, after the sequence 1♠ – 2♦ – 2♥ – 3♥. With the following hand, what do you lead and then continue?

♠ -    ♥ 543        ♦ J7642        ♣ AK863

Answer: -
You’d obviously like to give partner a ruff in clubs if possible, but if it works, how do you get partner to return a Spade? Again chance to give a McKenny Signal, this time continuing with the eight of clubs if a ruff by partner is likely to be successful. This eight calls for a return of the higher of the two suits, spades in this case.