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For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players..and others! It’s Fri day.

“Make it Easy on Your Self”

The title of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song from the 1960s (am I showing my age?!) can be applied to today’s bridge deal, with the adaptation of one word. More of that shortly. Firstly, you are defending a nervously bid game by your opponents:

 

You seem to have struck gold when you chose 2 as your opening lead. Your partner’s ace took the first trick and their Q won trick 2. Your partner continued with J at trick 3 and South was still following suit. You were back on lead to trick 4. What is your choice?

It is down to leading away from a queen or exiting what is probably a safe trump. Yet, how safe? South has not yet shown up with any high card points while that 10 sits rather ominously high in dummy. After a little thought (the “nerves” had shifted from North/South to West), they chose a small heart…and that was not a good choice for the defence:

 

J won the trick with trumps drawn in 3 rounds and within seconds, K had been discarded on the 10…game made! West did not feel too good about that. Yet, while they maybe should, certainly could, have made a better choice, the blame was by no means all theirs. Indeed, I would rate it as 80-20 with the large chunk going to East.

It seemed too easy for East to play that third round of clubs. Assuming that South followed, by no means a certainty, they alone were looking at the contract setting trick, A. West had to guess what to play at trick 4. While a diamond seemed to offer more hope for the defence than a heart, only one defender knew that was what was needed.

Good, very good, defence includes “making it easy on your” partner, if you can. There was little downside to cashing A at trick 3. It could be that West had both minor kings but only the K would score a trick because West had 4 clubs. If so, West could encourage a diamond continuation. Here, West would not encourage a diamond continuation. After A was cashed, there was a fair chance they could take three club tricks since West’s initial lead had been from a 3 card suit.

Partnership is co-operative and East here could have left their partner with no decision, no bad feeling as the very poor game made.

North-South had a misunderstanding as to the meaning of 3. North thought their partner was showing a strongish second suit and that they had a fit in both black suits…hence the jump to game. South meant 3 to be a long suit (at least 3 cards) help-ask…and North’s small clubs were no help at all…well, not until the defence erred. North should have signed off in 3 and then there would have been no story.

   
in doing so, you are helping your side. 

Another angle of the defence could come in the post-mortem. Before saying/ suggesting partner should have defended differently, look at your own defence and see what you could/ should have done to help defeat the contract. Changing the last word of that song title and putting it into action would have prevented another very poor contract from making.

Richard Solomon

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