Phillip Alder Bridge

Saturday, August 25, 2007

A tough defense for the weekend

North

	A 8 7 5
	Q 3
	K 7 5
	10 9 4 3

West

	10 6 4 2
	J 9 5 4
	3
	K 8 7 2

East

	K J 9 3
	10 7 6
	J 10 9 8
	A 5

South

	Q
	A K 8 2
	A Q 6 4 2
	Q J 6

Dealer: South
Vulnerable: Both

South	West	North	East
1	Pass	1	Pass
2	Pass	3	Pass
3NT	Pass	Pass	Pass

Opening lead:

     Malcolm Forbes, who was a keen bridge player, said, “It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.”
     At the bridge table, declarer-play is much easier than defense. And as a consequence, columnists and teachers spend far less time on defense than on declarer-play. So, to end the week, a defensive problem that requires our favorite exercise: counting.
     Look at the North and East hands. You are defending against three notrump after the given auction. Your partner leads the club two, his fourth-highest card in the suit. How would you plan the defense?
     What did you learn about South's hand from the bidding? His sequence, first one diamond, then two hearts, was a reverse, which promises at least five diamonds and shorter (four) hearts. From partner's opening lead, showing exactly a four-card suit, you know declarer has three clubs. This means South probably has 1=4=5=3 distribution.
     Take the first trick with your club ace and shift to the spade king, just in case declarer has a singleton spade queen. Since you have diamonds under control, if you are ever going to defeat the contract, this is how you will do it. Even if partner started with the king-jack of clubs, that suit can wait.
     That's exactly how this deal pans out. Declarer ducks a couple of spades, wins with dummy's ace on the third round, and tries to run the diamonds. When they don't break, he has to dislodge the club king to get out for down one.