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For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players….and many others!

“Bread and Butter”.

So, you think bridge bidding is all about making and defeating games and slams? This next piece may get you thinking again especially if you are playing Pairs.

We are going to give you a defensive situation here…and it is half way through the defence of a 1NT contract:

 

 

 

North opens in third position with a 12-14 1NT and everyone passes. Your partner leads 6. You play A as North follows with 9. You continue 7 (“present count”…a way of saying the higher of 2 remaining cards left in your hand at that point). Declarer plays 10 but your partner wins J and then plays K picking up declarer’s Q. At trick 4, your partner plays 8, the only remaining spade.

A club is discarded from dummy. What is your discard?

I was a little dubious about writing up this board until I looked at its results. It was played in the final round of NZ Open Pairs Final and Plate and the same stage of the Restricted Open Pairs and Plate. In total, 1NT was played 24 times and 7 tricks were made by the declarer 16 times. In the Final of the NZ Pairs, it was played 8 times and was made 6 times. Yet, the defence, yes, the defence, had seven top tricks to cash.

It was not a case of different opening leads. I only noticed one table where a spade was not led. The defence could take their first four tricks…but then something went wrong with the defence at many of the tables.

There is no one right answer about what West’s discard at trick 4 should be. It may be to dissuade your partner from switching to a club. It maybe to say you do not particularly like hearts. It may be to say you do like diamonds. The last of these may not always work out best for the defence but it is usually by far the simplest and gives East an idea of what to play at trick 5:

 

You may begin to get the gist of what happened at some tables. North may have discarded a club from dummy and a diamond from their hand. It would not be crisis time for East had they exited a heart….but when declarer next played a club to the king, it was. They had to find a diamond switch (K makes it so much easier for one’s partner) or else North would have 4 club tricks and three heart tricks.

One’s method in saying one has something useful may vary. Some play “low like” and there is no clearer signal that 2 to say you West hold the A. If you play a high card to say you like diamonds, then West must play 5 and hope their partner recognises the fact you like diamonds. The only non-honour card East cannot see is 6. There is therefore a very good chance that West is showing A.

There are other ways to say “I like diamonds, partner.” A suit preference 2 might suggest the lower of the other 2 non-played suits, diamonds.

The “bread and butter” of Pairs: part-scores

What is so relevant is the importance of signalling, to help East, who has made a very good opening lead for the defence, a spade, to continue the good work. On this deal, if you could encourage your partner to switch to K at trick 5, then the taking of the 2 minor aces should be straightforward.

 

So, you asked or to be more precise, “suggested” that partner might switch to a diamond? Then, maybe you should have been playing in the final of the New Zealand Open Pairs as you did better than most of the 1NT defenders in that event.

Richard Solomon

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