How to Unblock Honours for Partner
When partner leads a long suit, playing your high honour card instead of a low card prevents you from accidentally winning the lead when partner needs to run their suit.
Unblocking is a defensive card play technique where you intentionally play a high honour card (such as a King or Queen) under partner's Ace, or overtake partner's winning card, to ensure the lead remains with partner. This prevents your hand from winning a trick and "blocking" the run of partner's established long suit.
Why unblocking works
Suit establishment in No-Trump relies on communication. If partner holds a 6-card suit headed by the A-K-Q-10 and you hold J-2 doubleton, playing your small card (the 2) under partner's Ace spells disaster. On the next trick, when partner leads the King, your Jack will win the trick!
Because you have no more cards in the suit to lead back to partner, partner's remaining four winning cards are stranded. By throwing your Jack under partner's Ace on Trick 1, partner retains the lead and can cash all six tricks without interruption.
A worked example: Unblocking the Queen
Defending 3NT. Partner (West) leads the ♠K.
West (Partner):
♠ A K J 9 7 4
Dummy (North):
♠ 5 3
You (East):
♠ Q 2
Play of Trick 1:
West leads the ♠K. Dummy plays the ♠3. You must play the ♠Q!
Caption: If you play the ♠2, you will win Trick 2 with your ♠Q. Unless you have an outside entry to reach partner again, the Spade suit is blocked. Dumping your ♠Q under partner's ♠K (an unblock) allows partner to retain the lead and cash 6 Spades.
Four common mistakes
- Holding onto an honour out of instinct when partner clearly holds the longer, stronger suit.
- Unblocking when declarer holds a stopper in the suit that your honour could have captured.
- Overtaking partner's winning trick without holding any remaining cards to lead the suit back to them.
- Miscounting the total number of cards in the suit to realise an unblock is necessary.
When the rule does not apply
Do not unblock your honour if it is required to beat a card in dummy. If dummy holds the ♠10 and you hold ♠Q-2, you must save your Queen to cover dummy's 10 if declarer tries to win a trick with it.
Key takeaways
- Discard high honours on partner's winners to prevent blocking the suit.
- Essential when holding a doubleton honour in partner's long suit.
- Keeps communication entries fluid between defenders.
- Watch dummy's spot cards before deciding to unblock.