September 2011

Test Your Defence Column by Julian Pottage

Originally published in, and reproduced here with permission of, Bridge Magazine

Hand 1

 
N
North
J9
AQJ84
J104
QJ3
W
West
Q86432
3
K3
10642
4
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
2NT1
Pass
32
Pass
4
Pass
6
All Pass
 
(1) 20-22
(2) Transfer

 
You lead the four of spades, covered by the nine, king and ace. Declarer cashes the ace-king of hearts and three top clubs, East following each time. Then comes the ten of spades to your queen (seven from East). What do you lead next?

Hand 2

 
N
North
KJ96
A5
AKQ6
Q75
W
West
A74
KQ108
732
1084
K
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
Pass
1
Pass
1
Pass
4
All Pass
 

 
You lead the king of hearts. The ace wins and partner plays the two (discouraging). A heart comes back to the four, nine and ten. You exit with a low trump, won by the ten. Then comes a second round of trumps, to which East follows again. What do you do?

Solutions to Test Your Defence

 
1
South
N
North
J9
AQJ84
J104
QJ3
 
W
West
Q86432
3
K3
10642
4
E
East
K7
62
987652
975
 
S
South
A105
K10975
AQ
AK8
 

 
The original West switched to the king of diamonds. This was not a success.

‘Why did you do that?’ East enquired.

‘I was trying to make things easy for you if you had the queen. It looked like either black suit would be giving a ruff and discard, so I didn’t think I had any choice.’

‘”Didn’t think” seem to be the operative words, more like. While it’s true I could have had K-7-5 of spades when a spade exit would have given a ruff and discard, you should have done some counting. South does have to have thirteen cards you know.’

‘No need to be like that. Perhaps I did get it wrong. If South were 2=5=3=3 as I thought, I could afford to give a ruff and discard.’

‘Yes, and as it was, when he was just trying to bamboozle us, the spade was safe too.

 

 
2
West
N
North
KJ96
A5
AKQ6
Q75
 
W
West
A74
KQ108
732
1084
K
E
East
32
7642
J1085
KJ6
 
S
South
Q1085
J93
94
A932
 

 
At the table, West played back a trump. The declarer won in hand, trumped a heart and played four rounds of diamonds, throwing two clubs from hand. With nothing but clubs left, East had to give a trick to the queen.

North smiled, ‘Well played.’

‘Thank you, I knew from West’s initial pass that the king was over the queen. That’s why I played it as I did.’

‘Pity the defence wasn’t as good as the play,’ East observed wryly. ‘That third round of round of trumps was a total disaster. I had to throw my exit card in hearts.’

‘Can’t declarer play a third spade anyway?’ West retorted.

‘Yes he could – you needed to switch to a low club. I did play the four of hearts on the second round of the suit trying to tell you I had something in clubs. So long as you have 10-9-x or 10-8-x, we can afford to play the suit once.’