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Defending on your own: not always pleasant!

Yes, you do have a partner across the table but in today’s hand you are very much on your own because your partner has to follow suit while you have to find four discards. Your partner is not there this time to communicate with you. You are playing Teams and therefore taking 5 tricks is the aim because the contract is 3NT. At least, you want to restrict overtricks but beating the game is the best!

 

 

2NT shows 20-22 hcp. 3 is checking on declarer’s major suits with 3NT showing no 4 or 5 card major. Your partner leads a low spade (attitude style) though this does not look to be a great lead for your side.

Declarer takes the first trick with A, next plays K and then cashes AKQ, with both South and West having 3 hearts. Then comes a low spade, declarer taking the marked finesse in dummy. Then, they cash Q on which South discards a low club. Finally comes the J. You have had to discard on three rounds of spades and will now have to find your fourth discard on the J. Which four cards will you discard and which five will you keep?

That’s right. If you are counting, South has taken the first 8 tricks. Is there any hope your side can take the rest? Declarer has shown up with 16 hcp in the majors and thus has at least four more in the minor suits. We know that declarer has 4+ cards in one minor though there is no indication yet which.

What you do know is that if declarer holds the A, they will have 9 top tricks. So, being ever the optimist, you have to presume your partner has that card. There may be also the fact that South has taken their spade tricks leaving one (J) with your partner. Why do that if declarer can set up two tricks in a minor suit without losing the lead?

So, did you go for an all or nothing approach of discarding three clubs and a diamond? Let’s see all four hands:

 

There are different approaches a declarer can take when they survive the opening lead: i.e., get a spade as opposed to a diamond.

The first point to make is that although 8 seems to be winning the first trick, South must win the trick in hand as spades provides the only certain entry to dummy. Some declarers tried to sneak a club trick at trick 2 and were indeed successful, not that they won the trick but that East did not risk leading away from their diamond holding, with Q5 staring at them in dummy. Unable to play a spade, they went for hearts leaving relieved South players to play for overtricks.

South’s other approach would be to cash out their winners and hope the defence did not get it right at the end. Some did succeed because East kept a second club and played low when a low club was played from dummy at trick 9, surely a losing tactic. If South had K, then playing low gave South their 9^th trick.

East could have discarded two diamonds as long as they took A at the first opportunity and switched to a low diamond (by this stage, West just had to have A) as East’s remaining club would be discarded on the high J). However, it seemed that diamonds offered more chance of beating the contract than clubs. Therefore, discard your three clubs. On the J, South discarded a second club and West a diamond. South had no chance now.

43 declarers played in 3NT. 8 were unlucky enough to get a diamond lead. A spade was led 35 times and all bar 6 times, the contract made, on many occasions spectacularly with 3 overtricks! Perhaps the club at trick 2 is the better approach for South though some still made the contract by cashing their winners first. How was your discarding? Ever the optimist, I hope. 

Richard Solomon

It’s back to our JIN Club for Juniors, Intermediates and Novices (and others!) tomorrow.

 

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