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What is your “bullseye”?

The Aim of the Game?

Defence often comes with no guarantees. Sometimes, you just have to sit there and let it happen, hopefully “it” being to the benefit of your side. On other occasions, you might need to take some action to make “it” happen. There again, your action could prove disastrous.

Enough theorising. You are in the hot seat after trick 1.

 

Your partner, dutifully, leads 7. Declarer plays 10 from dummy and ducks your J, playing 4 from hand. Where to now? Plan the defence.

There are some obvious conclusions one can draw immediately. Declarer is very strong and your partner woefully weak. It is impossible for West to hold a spade honour as from say K73, your partner would surely lead 3. So, South is holding up from AK4, more likely a 4-card suit.

If it was just a question of losing a trick to your Q to score 9 or more tricks, South may not hold up. Maybe it is not that simple. What is also "not simple" is setting up you spade suit for more tricks. There may well not be time with your collection of “quacks” not quickly providing tricks. At the table, a second spade was played…and that was the end of the defence:

 

South had to duck the first spade to have any chance of establishing dummy’s diamonds. Also, they had to hope that East did not have both missing diamond honours, or if they did, that they held KQ doubleton. So, they won A at trick 2 and played A and a second diamond. West won to lead a heart but it was too late. Declarer won A in hand to play a third diamond. K provided an entry to North’s two remaining diamonds and South scored an overtrick when QJ fell doubleton.

After winning trick 1, East could almost have predicted that outcome or something very similar. If East could not establish their own suit for tricks, then their aim should have been here to deprive declarer of theirs.

Switching to Q at trick 2 carried a risk, that South held 10. East might be presenting South with their 9^th trick.. but they might not, either! Waiting  for "it" to happen was destined to fail. As you can see, A would take trick 2 and the K in dummy would be forced out while East still had diamond control (Q). Declarer would take 2 tricks in each major, a fortunate 3 club tricks but only one in diamonds…down 1 whether East took the setting tricks in spades or West in hearts.

Fortunate for East? Certainly but with that K a certain entry to dummy, East had to do something quickly to possibly prevent declarer winning diamond tricks. Continuing spades would not do that. The switch attacking dummy’s entry was the way to go to allow the defence to beat the game. That was the “aim of the game” this time for East and they probably realised that too late.

Richard Solomon

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