IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

There is perhaps nothing more difficult in bridge than defense.  A good defender will listen carefully to the auction and make assumptions as to the location of high cards.  But even that may not be enough and sometimes a decision must be made at trick one.  Take a look at poor East in this hand.

Scoring:  Matchpoints  (Pairs)
 
Hand #29
Dlr   E
Vul N/S
S 7
H K74
D AKQ54
C AK98
S 82
H Q10952
D 83
C 10542
    
S AKQ1065
H A86
D J
C Q76

S J943
H J3
D 109762
C J3
West North
 East
 South


1S Pass
    Pass    Dbl
     2S    Pass
    Pass
    Dbl
    Pass
    3D
    Pass
    3S    Pass
    3NT
All Pass



BIDDING:  North really liked his hand but so did East.  This meant there was very little left for the other two players.   I was sitting South and after North's second takeout double, I reluctantly showed my diamond suit.  But my partner wasn't done; his cue bid asked me to bid 3NT if I had a spade stopper so I took a deep breath and did so. 

PLAY:  West obediently led his partner's suit and the spotlight was now on East.  He could see that I only had seven tricks: 5 diamonds and 2 clubs.  He decided to cash this top three spades and exit with the ten of spades to wait on his tricks.  I won the fourth spade discarding a heart, a diamond, and a club from dummy.  The jack of spades was my eighth trick and I proceeded to run the diamonds.  East was immediately under stress.  In order to protect his queen of clubs, he was forced to discard his two remaining spades and then two hearts.  Unfortunately for him, his partner discarded two clubs along with a heart.  I read East's last four cards as the heart ace and Qxx of clubs.  Hoping I was right, I led a low heart and East was end played.  It didn't matter if he led a low club or the queen, the rest of the tricks were mine.

East had to make a decision early in the hand.  If he thought his partner held good heart cards, he must switch to a heart.  If his partner held the jack of clubs, the defense he finally chose would work.  Note that he cannot play three rounds of spades to see his partner's discard because a heart shift then would give me my ninth trick.  This was a difficult hand to defend and the heart shift would have worked.  Of course, if his partner had not discarded two clubs, the line of defense he chose would have worked.  East could defeat the hand by returning the queen of clubs.  That blocks the club jack in my hand and West eventually will win the ten of clubs. 

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.