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Co-operative Defense
It's all very fine to make contracts with brilliant Declarer play, but nothing is quite so good for partnership morale as a skilful co-operative defensive effort which extracts the maximum number of tricks from the hapless Declarer.
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
West doesn’t see much point in bidding his Spades when there is a known 8-card Heart fit, so he bids 2♦ and then 4♥, showing a minimum game-going hand. Sensible bidding, we think, but it does have the unfortunate side-effect of giving South a road map to the winning defense. South will know that North is short in Diamonds and will cash the ♦A and give North a ruff. Naturally, South will lead her lowest Diamond on the second round, a suit preference for the lower-ranking suit. Will North, who is looking at that singleton in Club in Dummy, have the courage to underlead her ♣A? She had better, otherwise Declarer has 10 tricks (provided that she guesses Hearts correctly).
Did anybody make 5♠? Clearly, Declarer needs some help for this to happen. But not much! Suppose that North leads the A♥. Declarer ruffs this, and leads a Diamond ... North plays the Jack, and shifts to a trump won by Declarer ... now it goes Diamond ruff, Heart ruff, Diamond ruff, Heart ruff ... next Declarer plays all his trumps arriving at a 3-card ending ... if South makes the mistake of hanging on to her A♦ along with 2 Clubs, she will be thrown in with a Diamond and have to concede two Club tricks at the end. South found herself guessing whether to play Declarer for the Q♦ and two small Clubs, or for a small Diamond and ♣Qx. Could North have helped out in any way? Actually yes, but it's not easy ... it all depends on the three Diamond plays: - on the first round of Diamonds, when Declarer led low from his hand, North knew that South had to have the A♦, but she had to play the Jack in case Declarer had the King; - on the second round of Diamonds, North had to play the Queen! ... her hope here is that the message to South is "I'm playing the Queen because I can afford to, I also have the 9" ... a great play if South is on the same wave-length and now pitches a high Diamond - on the third round of Diamonds, North pitches a low Diamond (preserving the precious Nine), and South continues this super defense by pitching the other high Diamond. Nicely done!
Against 3♣, a Heart lead and a Club switch will result in a fast down one. But, North might lead a Spade through Dummy’s suit, won by South’s Queen … now South might err grievously by continuing Spades in search of a trump promotion after which 9 tricks are made. Poor play by South, we must say, it cannot be wrong to lay down the A♥ at Trick Two to get Partner’s opinion … if she started with a singleton Spade, or seeks a trump promotion, she’ll discourage the Heart, regardless of whether or not she holds the K♥.
2♠ is a perilous contract, with normal play Declarer will lose a trick to the singleton Q♠ after it will be touch-and-go for 8 tricks. But good defense beats the contract, as follows: East leads the A♥ Another Heart to West’s King The third round of Hearts is ruffed by Declarer A Spade is led to the Jack and the West’s Queen Another Heart (good defense!), Declarer pitches a Club, East a Diamond, Dummy ruffs K♠ ducked by East (more good defense!)
This wicked defense has left Declarer in the following predicament: Declarer ♠ T8 ♥ ♦ KJT ♣ QT West East ♠ ♠ K7 ♥ 9 ♥ ♦ Q76 ♦ 5 ♣ K65 ♣ J932 Dummy ♠ ♥ ♦ A982 ♣ A75 In the end position, Declarer needs 5 of the 7 last tricks, with the lead on the board. Declarer has two ways to proceed, and they both lead to defeat: - If she tries to get back to her hand with a Club, West jumps up with the K♣, and now the 5th Heart is ruinous, ensuring that the defense gets two more trump tricks and 6 in total. - If she gets back to her hand with a Diamond finesse, and then loses to the K♠, East will exit with a Club, and Declarer is up the creek and paddleless. She cannot duck the Club (West wins and leads a Heart for a trump promotion), and if she wins the A♣, and tries to get back to her hand (to draw the last trump) then East will ruff. Pity poor North for running into such a fine defense.
That 2♥ bid was DONT (showing Hearts and Spades). The West hand has slow tricks in Declarer’s second suit and this begs for a trump lead. The play will be painful for Declarer, perhaps something like this: Heart to East’s King A♥ is cashed Low Diamond to South’s Ace K♠ and A♠ are cashed Spade ruff A Diamond to West’s King Shift to the J♣! (not low) Club to East’s Queen Q♦ is played (not a Club) Now, East keeps cashing minor suit winners until Declarer ruffs and is overruffed. All that Declarer can manage is the Q♥, and that will be down three for -800. Nice defense by E-W, the keys being the opening lead of the trump, the shift to a low Diamond, and the subsequent playing of the minor winners in the right order. Well, done, but even a less accurate defense will get Declarer for 500 and that is enough to beat the few E-W pairs who bid the game.
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