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     Russell Dive.

Defending Doubled!

Today, we feature one further board which contributed to Anthony Ker and Russell Dive’s victory in last weekend’s National Swiss Pairs. It demonstrates that even quite a modest trump suit can be more than useful when in defence.

 

When you are playing Pairs, a wrong decision may cost you just one bad score. In a Teams or Swiss Pairs competition, it could cost you the match..and more!

So, what are you going to do? What might make your decision even harder is that 1 is limited  to 15hcp. Partner will not be very strong. 1 guarantees at least one 4-card major and diamond length is not guaranteed.

Neither will 3 be that weak. The range was 9-13 hcp. So, what to do?

The options seem to be 3 or Pass. Confronted with the above bidding , Russell Dive elected to defend and he was not to be disappointed by the outcome:

 

The defence should always be able to get two red aces, three spades and a trump which would be a very handy +500 on a board where game cannot be made. However, the defence can do even better.

Russell led J which Anthony took with his ace (perhaps ducking to retain communication might have been a better option though on this day did not matter) and played a diamond back. Declarer does best at this stage to play a heart which West will duck as they get the count from their partner. Then a second heart would be won by West who would play a trump.

In reality, North played AKJ won by Russell’s Q. Russell switched to a low spade and the defence took 3 spade tricks with Russell winning the third round before switching to a heart. Anthony won and, with the defence having taken all their side-suit tricks, could then play a third round of diamonds.  Declarer with 962 left had to lose a trick to Russell’s 7, the extra trick that most of those who defended 3 (usually a slower auction with North bidding 2 then 3 and not being doubled) failed to get.

+800 was a fine reward when the highest making contract for East-West was 2. Even a trump suit of Q754 can pose a big threat to a declarer when one’s partner was kind enough to produce 10. Russell could not even be sure his partner held 4 spades and as we see, even when he did, the 3-level was too high.

Richard Solomon

 

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