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Memory.

Defending can be pretty hard. There’s all sorts of decisions like what to lead, what to discard, what to keep. Just try the following situation.

 

 

The bidding was all natural and you led a low heart, the unbid suit. Declarer played low from dummy and your partner played 9 with the trick being won by South’s Q.

Next, South played a low diamond to dummy’s ace, then K and then J with East and South following with low diamonds. What do you discard on the third round of diamonds?

That may or may not seem hard. West chose a small heart. Next came a spade to the ace and then Q from declarer’s hand. Another discard required from you. What is it to be?

Our West decided they wanted to keep some of their hearts and so threw a small spade.

Disaster! South played K and East followed with J as these were the four hands:

 

Next came Q and two more spade winners from South who had taken a heart trick, four diamond tricks and then five spade tricks. +430 was the score for South and yet most of the declarers in 3NT had failed after the same heart lead.

“Did I discard badly?” asked West and unfortunately the answer was “yes”. West had broken one cardinal rule, that of forgetting the bidding. South had opened 1 and even if North-South were playing 4-card majors, which they were, it was vital that West hang onto four cards in that suit just in case they represented a trick which would stop declarer making enough tricks.

Even if T972 did not look like a trick, it could and indeed was. West just had to hang on to their spades, all 4 of them. On the actual deal, they could have discarded both clubs though it is understandable that they kept both K2. That left only one suit to discard, hearts even if West had hoped they would be winners.

Had West discarded another small heart, South would play AKQ but there would be no more winners for declarer as the K would fall under the ace and the defence would have hearts and top clubs. 

 

Remember the bidding if you can and hang on to a 4-card suit bid by declarer or dummy even if your holding is relatively weak. 

Richard Solomon 

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