BRIDGE
A thoughtful defence
L. SUBRAMANIAN
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Suspecting that declarer may ruff a few of his losers in dummy or there may be a cross-ruff going, you reject the automatic lead of club ace but select the spade two as your opening lead instead.
Play proceeds… dummy plays the four, partner follows with the three, and declarer wins with the six. Diamond ten hits the table at trick two. How do you defend?
Analysis: Declarer seems to have seven spades to the A-J-10. He is void in clubs. If he has the spade king, he might have won the opening lead in dummy and played a diamond towards his hand. He definitely has the heart king for his opening bid. If he has three hearts, he can throw one of his diamond losers on the thirteenth heart after giving up a heart trick. What if he has 2-4 in hearts and diamonds respectively?, and his hand is: Spade Ace-Jack-10-x-x-x-x; Heart King-x; Diamond Queen-10-x-x
If you lazily follow with the diamond two, your partner will have to win the trick with the diamond jack. As he does not have a trump to return, declarer will be able to ruff two of his diamond losers, making an overtrick.
Defence: Therefore, the winning defence is to play the diamond ace, and play a second trump, restricting the declarer to ten tricks. The full deal is:
Discussion: You should reflect for a moment what would happen if you play the diamond two when declarer leads the diamond ten from his hand at trick two:
If declarer’s diamonds are Q-J-10-x, he will be able to take a ruffing finesse later against your ace, making two overtricks.
If declarer’s diamonds are K-10-9-x, he will be able to ruff out your diamond ace, making two overtricks again.
If declarer’s diamonds are K-Q-J-10, you will look foolish when the diamond ten wins the trick and declarer is able to ruff out your diamond ace subsequently, making all thirteen tricks!
The play of the diamond ace will save a trick against any of the above possible diamond holdings of south, including the actual Q-10-9-4.
May be you got lucky with the lead... but if you’re not alert enough to put up the diamond ace at trick two, you will let slip the advantage... and partner won’t be too pleased!
The point of the hand is that the defence should play a second round of trump to cut down the diamond ruffs in dummy... and this is possible only if you win the trick
This thoughtful defence gave East-West a 100 per cent score on the board in a pairs tournament.
Email: ls4bridge@gmail.com
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