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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
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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