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No exception to this saying.

Don’t you love defending? I am sure you do, sometimes. It can, though, be pretty challenging. So, today, the defence seems to start quite well. Partner leads your suit and has a decent holding in your suit, too. In 3NT, that’s a good sign. So….

 

1NT was standard 15-18 with a hold in opener’s suit. The double promised values rather than spades since being a passed hand, North felt they had to take some action. The lead from West is Q. Any thoughts?

One thought might be how many spades are in each of the two hidden hands. If West has six, that does not leave many for South. West’s bid does suggest a 6-card suit or why bid them?
Another thought might centre around South’s heart hold. Do you trust them? Might they have called 1NT on Jxx? You should be able to rule that out as in that case, West would have led low from Qxx. So, assuming 1NT is a sensible action, South has J10xx.

One way to defeat this ambitious game is to take 4 heart tricks and one trick elsewhere, probably from one of one’s black suit kings. Thus, play 4 rounds of hearts and wait. There is one snag to this plan. If South has only one spade (perhaps an honour) or even if they had two, South will have tricks to take in a minor suit, quite likely diamonds. Have you given any thought what you might discard on the fourth round of diamonds?

 

Interestingly, if you encourage your partner to continue hearts, and give South their heart trick, South may well take a losing line of playing for four diamond tricks, one heart trick and two tricks in each black suit via two hopefully successful finesses. In order to do that, they must play an immediate Q and will be disappointed with the outcome. Clubs cannot provide more than two tricks unless East throws one.

While West’s 2 bid might suggest this line, that would give East an 11 count at best. That is possible and therefore South could play like that. However, East, the opening bidder, is still favourite to hold K. In that case, it would be wise for South to play four rounds of diamonds, if they can, first. On the fourth round, East cannot afford to throw a black card and therefore has to throw their winning heart. Now comes a club from dummy ducked to West who switches to a spade. Up with the ace and repeat the club finesse and South is home.

Now, at trick 2, East cannot necessarily pick the play but they should be aware of the difficulty of future discarding to a minor suit. Can you anticipate that you need a spade switch at trick 2 to be sure of beating the contract? Discourage a heart continuation.

Say West switches to a low spade at trick 2. South may play low hoping to score their queen. As long as East switches to a club, the defence will score one club trick before South can score a heart trick (and were declarer to run 4 diamonds, East can discard a heart), giving the defence three top hearts and one trick in each black suit. South would have 2 tricks in each black suit and 4 diamonds and would still need a heart trick to make their game.

If declarer wins A at trick 2, they will lose the same five tricks.

So, the best action for East at trick 1 is to discourage hearts with spades being the most likely switch. Of course, had partner led a spade at trick 1, South would have had no chance of success. Yet, Q6 of partner's opening suit feels a better bet than a suit headed by the 10...and you will not normally lose the post-mortem...except maybe this time!

Obvious for East to discourage? Maybe not but then there are many who say, even if they enjoy defending, that “defence is the hardest part of the game.” This deal proves that saying. Oh, tomorrow’s deal proves that, too, even if initially, it is a bidding problem you will receive.

Hearts, galore, again!

Yesterday’s problem centred round how many hearts you would bid with a long suit. Tomorrow, you seem to have at least 11 of them between your two hands. What is your bid with the East hand below?

Teams.

 

1 is Precision, 16+ hcp any shape. 1 is a natural overcall and the double is any positive, 8+hcp.

Richard Solomon

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