Bridge Life - 19
♠74
♥A65
♦K8753
♣KJ5
♠ A K J 10 6
♥ J 10 8
W
♦9 2
♣832
♠2
N
E
S
♠3
We lead the ♠A, top of our broken
sequence. Dummy plays the ♠4,
partner the ♠2, and declarer the ♠3.
What are we doing next?
Again we have reached a critical
point early in the defense.
We must pay attention to partner's
♠2, a discouraging signal. It tells us
declarer has the ♠Q. What must we
lead at trick two? Anything except a
spade! Here's the full deal:
♠74
♥A65
♦K8753
♣KJ5
♠ A K J 10 6
♥ J 10 8
W
♦9 2
♣832
N
E
S
♠852
♥9 7 3 2
♦ A J 10 4
♣ 10 6
♠Q93
♥KQ4
♦Q6
♣AQ974
If we continue with a spade at trick
two, declarer gets a trick with the
♠Q to go with three hearts and five
clubs. That's nine tricks.
If we lead anything else at trick
two, declarer has only eight tricks
and must lead a diamond to get nine.
If we shift to the ♥J at trick two
and declarer leads a low diamond
from dummy, partner will suddenly
be faced with a critical play. Partner
must figure out why we led a spade and
then shifted to a heart. Partner must
hop up with the ♦A and lead a spade.
We then get five spade tricks and a
diamond to defeat 3NT two tricks.
On this next deal, we're sitting East
defending 4♥ after this auction:
West North
1♣
East
1♦
South
1♥
PASS
PASS
4♥
2♥
♠K6
♥ J 10 6
♦654
♣ A K Q 10 5
N
♦K
W
E
S
♠AQ7
♥ 74
♦ A Q 10 9 7 2
♣82
Partner leads the ♦K, the suit we
overcalled, and dummy comes down.
The ♦4 is played from dummy, and we
are immediately at the critical point
in the defense.
It's tempting to play the ♦10 as an
encouraging signal, but if partner leads
another diamond, we'll be on lead at
trick three. What do we really want
partner to do? Switch to a spade!
How can we do that? We must
play a low diamond at trick one as
a discouraging signal, telling partner
not to lead another diamond. Looking
at dummy, partner is unlikely to lead
a club and will hopefully lead a spade.
We then get two spade tricks and two
diamond tricks to defeat 4♥.
On this last deal, we're again in the
East position. The opponents reach
3NT after this auction:
Audrey Grant, an ACBL and Canadian Bridge Federation Hall of Fame
member, has an international reputation in the field of bridge education for
her successful Better Bridge books, television shows, lectures and magazine.
Additionally, she developed ACBL's Bridge Series books as well as Commonly
and More Commonly Used Conventions. Grant was the leader in the creation
of ACBL's Teacher Accreditation Program. More information can be
found at www.betterbridge.com.
West North East South
1 ♦ PASS 1NT
PASS
3NT
ALL PASS
♠A Q 8
♥A K
♦Q J 10 9 8 5
♣J3
♥Q
N
W
E
S
♠J 7 6 4 2
♥7 2
♦K 3
♣K 8 5 2
Partner leads the ♥Q and dummy
wins the♥K as we play a low heart. At
trick two, declarer leads the ♦Q. Are
we ready? We're at the critical point
in the defense. We need to decide
whether or not to play our ♦K.
There are maxims we could apply
such as "second hand low." We don't
want to play the ♦K and find partner
with a singleton ♦A. Then there's
"cover an honor with an honor."
However, that has a caveat, "cover the
last honor led from dummy." What do
we do?
Instead of considering maxims,
we should focus on where our side's
tricks are coming from. We don't have
much, so we're going to have to rely on
establishing partner's hearts.
We should play the ♦K, planning to
lead our remaining heart and hoping
partner has the ♦A as an entry to take
the heart winners. Here's the full deal:
♠AQ8
♥AK
♦ Q J 10 9 8 5
♣J3
♠95
N
♥QJ9863
W
E
♦A 7
S
♣Q97
♠ K 10 3
♥ 10 5 4
♦642
♣ A 10 6 4
♠J7642
♥7 2
♦K3
♣K852
We need to be prepared when the
critical point in the defense arrives,
and it often comes early.
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