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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Disaster Defence.

Today, there are no brilliancies but just a sad tale of all that could have gone wrong, which indeed did go wrong. Eventually, someone had to prosper by getting a good result. To start with, a defensive situation:

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South Deals
E-W Vul

A 10 6 5 2

10 7 3

4

J 10 3 2

Q 4 3

Q

A 10 8 7 5

K 8 7 5

 

N

W

 

E

S

   

 

West

North

East

South

you

dummy

   

 

 

 

1 NT

Pass

2 

Dbl

3 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

 

1NT was 15-17 and 2Heart-small a transfer to spades. South must have liked the spade bid as after East’s lead-directing double (‘ like hearts”), they jumped to 3Spade-small, a super-accept. North must have really liked this bid because with a bit of shape and a 5-count, they freely bid to game. That seems an over-aggressive bid, especially as Pairs was the game.

West was happy to lead as directed, their singleton Heart-smallQ. East won trick 1 with Heart-smallA and returned Heart-small5. South, who followed with Heart-small6 at trick 1 followed to trick 2 with Heart-small8 as you ruffed with Spade-small3. Which card do you play to trick 3?

It is always a great idea when you are giving your partner a ruff, or even possibly doing that, to indicate with the card you play which suit is best to return. It is also a good idea to make your signal as clear as possible.

The sad tale…for the defence!

West was not quite sure what to do next and decided to cash their Diamond-smallA. Although not necessary at that point and certainly not the best defence, that act was by no means crucial. However, West’s next card, Club-small5, certainly was, as these were the four hands:

South Deals
E-W Vul

A 10 6 5 2

10 7 3

4

J 10 3 2

Q 4 3

Q

A 10 8 7 5

K 8 7 5

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

9

A J 5 4 2

K J 9 2

9 6 4

 

K J 8 7

K 9 8 6

Q 6 3

A Q

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

 

1 NT

Pass

2 

Dbl

3 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

 

West was determined to find a way back to their partner’s hand to score another heart ruff. That one-eyed defence allowed South to make their contract by simply winning Club-smallQ and drawing trumps.

What went wrong

It was certainly not all one-way in the West direction. East’s double of 2Heart-small is surely questionable. East’s hearts were reasonable at best and were South not to have such a good spade fit with their partner…and were the North hand not so weak, then 2Heart-smallxx (and why not!) could make.

(Had East stayed silent, West had an awkward lead to a spade contract. They may well choose a club. Although South can now make 4Spade-small by finessing Spade-smallQ, it is by no means certain this will happen and is certainly no reason for East’s dangerous double of 2Heart-small.)

East should really have had better hearts for their double. The double backfired in a different way, too. Had they passed, it is doubtful that South, with minimum hcp for their bid would have jumped to 3Spade-small. East would likely have been in the pass-out seat to 2Spade-small and might have risked a take-out double, enabling East-West to find their diamond fit (even 4Diamond-small is a realistic make). As it was, South up-valued their hand, no doubt hoping that their partner had shorter hearts…and the diamond fit was lost.

East could also have helped their partner by returning Heart-smallJ at trick 2, a clear sign for a diamond return though that might have backfired had West held a doubleton heart and the defence’s diamond trick would disappear on a fourth round of hearts. 

Back, though, to West. At trick 2, the defence had taken 2 tricks. West still had Diamond-smallA and what looked like an almost certain club trick, with the 4 card suit in dummy. They either got greedy or lost focus, the primary aim of the defence being to defeat the contract, certainly one bid on such a small number of hcp.

Certainly, a small diamond at trick 3 to East’s Diamond-smallK beats this ambitious contract by two tricks, assuming that when they get their second ruff, West exits Spade-smallQ or a diamond. That’s nice defence, possible if West had interpreted the Heart-small5 return as asking for a diamond. Most of the unseen hearts (to West) were below Heart-small5.  However, let’s be sure we are beating this game by laying down Diamond-smallA, maybe even leading a low trump and by certainly not playing a speculative club. After all, South did have a strong no-trump hand with a maximum 7 or 8 hcp in the majors (West could tell that). It was not thus so surprising that the club exit backfired.

 

  •        So, watch the strength of lead-directional doubles.
  •        Guide your partner as clearly as you can as what is the best suit to play after gaining a ruff.
  •        Keep track of the hcps in declarer’s hand.
  •        And above all, remember the primary aim of the defence (unless the opponents are sacrificing) is to beat their contract by one trick. Extra under-tricks are a bonus.

Had East-West followed the above, they would have been writing down a plus score from this board.

Richard Solomon

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