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Fence Sitting?

There are times to be a passive defender, perhaps when you hold most of the high cards for your side but there are times when you cannot sit back and wait for tricks to come your way. What do you think about West’s situation here?

 

You open a 12-14 1NT and with two passes think you might get to play there. However, South spoils any such thoughts as they end the auction very abruptly in 4.

The West hand looks like one where any lead could be right or wrong. Not wanting to lead away from a king or try a speculative ace, you lead what should be a safe enough trump. Your partner contributes 10 and declarer K. Next comes A from South with your partner playing 6 as a club is discarded from dummy.

Then 8 from declarer. Do you win this trick and if you do, what do you play next? If you win, your partner plays 4.Swiss Pairs is the game.

What is going on here? Where is the A? Has your partner any trumps left….perhaps the high Q?

Unless your partner started with QJT6, you can rule out any chance of a trump trick. You managed a safe enough opening lead. However, what do you think of dummy? Your club holding looks anything but ideal, ready for a successful finesse. So, why did South play a diamond not a club?

Maybe you are starting to get a picture of what is happening. If so, you would rise with K ( West did that) but would have to abandon your defensive attitude, which West did not. They returned a second diamond which was not the winning defence:

 

South won A, drew trump and crossed back to dummy with Q to discard a spade on the A. The contract was made for the loss of two spades and K.

Jump down from the fence

The time for passive defence had passed. Dummy’s club suit suggested that. If the defence was to take four tricks, then the trump and club suits were unlikely to provide any. East might have A but tricks had to come from the spade suit.

The void club was quite likely and the only successful defence for West was to play a spade, any spade… but with J in dummy, there was little reason to play a low spade (possibly correct if dummy held three small spades and South Qxx). See what your partner says when you lay down your ace. Their card would certainly say “carry on”.

South might have played their diamond a round earlier, at trick 2. They certainly did not want a defender signalling a liking for spades, hence the playing of the diamond before all the trumps were drawn.

The look of dummy should have guided West into the winning defence. West had done well not to lead a diamond or a club at trick 1. They fell down because they  did not realise that the time to stay defensive had passed. Attack or write down -620. A trump was led 5 times by West against 4 but only once did the defenders manage 4 tricks.

Richard Solomon

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