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A Valuable Card.

Two stories: one card: great value to the defenders. Today’s stories are a mixture of defensive convention and common sense. Let’s have a look:

 

1 was 4+ clubs and you bid your fair hand twice but your partner was silent for a while but did eventually show some support. However, you did not bid over South’s 4 bid.

You led the K for reverse count and partner played 8 as South followed with 5. What now?

We look at the second problem through the eyes of the declarer:

 

East starts with a standard Weak 2. You are not really sure how many hearts to bid or how often but decide to bid what you hope to make on a good day. The “how often” is decided for you as your partner competes to the 5-level…and everyone passes.

West starts with A and despite or because  the 3 appearing from East, continues with 10. Presumably you ruff. Which card do you play next?

There is a theme, a connection between the two boards, and not just the common card you will see shortly. It is very common, that when partner leads a high card and is likely to retain the lead, and a singleton appears in dummy, that the leader’s partner suggests a possible switch, high to the higher of the non-trump suits and low to the lower.. only a suggestion, of course.

In our first example, the 8 was a relatively high card and you had a rather ugly holding in the “higher” suit, hearts, KJ9. So, hopefully, you found the 9 switch as this was the lay-out:

 

We did say East did not show much enthusiasm in bidding and you can see why! Vulnerable, too! However, a heart switch was absolutely necessary at trick 2 to beat 4. Maybe East would have played 9 if they were more enthusiastic! That odd-looking 9 was good enough for the defence to take two hearts and a diamond along with their one spade trick.

Such signals do work! Let’s look at our second deal:

 

It’s not quite the same as there was no singleton spade in dummy but with West holding 3 or 4 spades, there was perhaps a chance for East to indicate a switch..and 3 may well have been suggesting a club. “So what” you may ask? South had none.

The deal was more about the red suits than clubs. A 2-1 trump break and a successful diamond finesse and there would be an overtrick. That was not quite the lay-out but there was an overtrick. Who knows which heart declarer was going to call from dummy had West contributed 6 after a fairly quick but in tempo J hit the table at trick 3. We will never know as West fell from grace..or did they play for East to have singleton 10, which if true was a rather extreme view for the declarer to take.

West did not follow the scout’s motto and was caught out by the J. Maybe they were bemoaning that diamond holding in dummy. Plenty of time for that later. Bridge at any level is about pressure, certainly at the 5-level and as a defender you must be prepared as much as you can.

Interestingly, had West switched to a club at trick 2, South could make a fairly informed guess as to where the Q was, certainly if East did continue with Q at trick 3. AQ and probably QJ makes it less likely it is with West. We will never know which card South would play from dummy at trick 2. There was no guess. 

Worse, of course, for East-West was that they could make 11 tricks of their own in spades.

Value that Q, no matter how little else you have.

A good hand for some game…but which!

 

What now? We are playing Pairs.

Richard Solomon

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