April 2021 - 58

Intermediate Players

Defensive Maneuvers
BY PAUL ROSS

pross0905@gmail.com

M

atchpoints. East-West vulnerable, South deals. You are
sitting West and you hold:

K Q 2  J 10 5 3  Q 8 5 2  7 6.
The auction:
West	 North	East	 South
			Pass
Pass	1	 Pass	1
Pass	2	 Pass	2NT
Pass	
3NT	
All Pass	
What can you deduce about this
deal?
North has a strong hand. North's
reverse showed at least a good 16 HCP
with five or more clubs and four diamonds. South has at least four spades,
but she never showed more than a
minimum one-over-one response.
Which suit do you lead?
Neither opponent has shown anything
in hearts. Lead a heart.
Which heart do you lead?
The traditional lead against notrump
contracts is fourth best. An argument
could be made for leading the jack from
J-10-5-3, but I'm going to require that
you lead the 3 because that's what
the actual West led. Here's what you
see:
	
A8
	
Q6
	
 K 10 9 3
	
 A K Q 10 5
 K Q 2	
N
 J 10 5 3	 W E
 Q 8 5 2	
S
76

58 | Bridge Bulletin | April 2021

Dummy plays low, partner plays the
ace and declarer follows with the 4.
Partner returns the 7, declarer winning the king.
Declarer cashes two high clubs in
dummy and wins a third round of clubs
with the 9 in her hand. Partner follows
suit once and then discards two low
spades up the line. (Yes, North-South
have a 5-5 club fit.)
You follow suit twice but then must
find a discard. What do you discard
on the third club trick? What will you
discard on the next two club tricks?
Wait. That's not important. Let's
go back to trick two, when partner
returned the 7 and declarer won the
king in hand (dummy contributing the
stiff queen). Which heart did you play
from J 10 5?
Was there any significance to the 7
that partner returned at trick two? Yes,
there was. Standard practice, when
returning opening leader's suit at
notrump, is to lead top of the remaining doubleton if you started with
three cards in the suit, or your original
fourth-best card if you started with
four or more cards in the suit. Partner's
7 implies that he started with four
or five hearts. And declarer's K -
crashing dummy's Q - implies she
started with only two hearts. Partner
must have started with five hearts and
declarer with king doubleton.
If you played the 5 at trick two,
your J-10 are now good; that's two
heart tricks you will get sooner or later.
But if you played the J or 10 at trick
two and kept the 5, you can cash your
remaining high heart as soon as you
get in the lead and then lead the 5 for
partner to win two more heart tricks.
If you did not block the heart suit,
you will eventually come to four heart
tricks and the A, setting 3NT one

trick. Here's the complete deal:
	
A8
	
Q6
	
 K 10 9 3
	
 A K Q 10 5
 K Q 2		
7653
N
 J 10 5 3		
A9872
W
E
 Q 8 5 2		
A74
S
 7 6		
2
	
 J 10 9 4
	
K4
	
J6
	
J9843
At my table, West failed to realize the
importance of not blocking the heart
suit and played the 5 at trick two. He
soon realized his error and started
to unblock hearts by discarding the
10 on the third round of clubs. Had
there been a fourth round of clubs, he
would have completed the unblock by
sluffing his last heart. But declarer was
(now) alert. Taking only three rounds
of clubs, she led the J from her hand,
thus setting up two diamond tricks -
all that is needed - while the defense
could get only one more heart trick.
Declarer needs to wake up at trick
one and play the Q from dummy
in an attempt to conceal her holding.
When both honors crash at trick two,
the situation is known.
April 2021

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