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Keeping Track.

There are times when a defender can do something brilliant, yes, even you! Such moments will come and you can enjoy them. However, generally, the art of successful defence is doing what the cards tell you to do, maybe a signal from partner, maybe just keeping your eyes open.

 

 1NT was 15-17 and 2 either a range-finder or a weak transfer to a minor suit. 3 was any maximum and the no trump game was reached.

You lead 6 to your partner’s K and declarer’s 2. Partner returns 9 to declarer’s 10 and your J. What now?

Your quite aggressive lead seems to have worked out rather well. Your partner not only produced the king but, for declarer, a challenging 9 back. If you can score 4 heart tricks, then one more trick somewhere will set the contract. Yet, you have to resist the urge to lay down your A to fell the queen that declarer seems to hold. That is because of the "challenging" 9. Had your partner held a 5-card heart suit, they should have returned their original 4^th highest heart. That is clearly not the situation.

That same card should have been played had East held a 4-card heart suit, though some like to play Q in that situation to leave the opening leader in no doubt as to where that card is. Again, 9 does not suggest a holding of say KQ97. What a mean card the 9 would be from that holding.

What it does and should suggest is that East had started with K9 and either none or at most one smaller card, called “present count”, playing high then low of the remaining two cards East holds in that suit.

If East has a doubleton, then you are probably helping declarer by cashing the ace. If it is from a three-card suit, then you have a finesse position. Did you notice the 8 in your own hand? So, you need to switch and wait and hope that your partner gains the lead sometime soon.

You are lucky to have what seems a reasonably safe exit with Q. Show patience.

 

South can score four spade and two club tricks. If you had cashed the A, the only other trick for the defence would have been the A…3NT making. On some days, the declarer may come to 9 tricks before the defence scores 5. However, cashing the A at that point will almost never help the defence.

South needs diamond tricks and will win A and play Q. They hope that card is with West but it is not. Your partner will win A and play 3. Your A8 has declarer’s Q7 covered nicely. Four heart tricks and the A. You knew that the 9 was not from a sequence because you held 8.

You had watched those heart pips carefully, shown patience and were duly rewarded.

Nothing flashy but just keeping track of those heart pips: eyes open.

Who should have done more?

Bridge post-mortems should not be about blame but should be a constructive discussion of both good and bad results. The following was a poor result for East-West. Why?

 

It’s Pairs and South ended up as declarer in 2 and making 8 tricks. While it seems 2 could be beaten by one trick, it is hard for the defence to score more than 5 tricks. Some managed less!

Yet, 10 tricks were available in hearts with only average luck. What caused East-West to be defending 2 and not at least pushing on to 3?

Richard Solomon

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