IMPROVE YOUR DEFENSE
This column is designed to help keep your defensive skills sharp. Both individual technique and partnership cooperation are covered.
Rubber bridge
East dealer
East-West vulnerable
| NORTH (dummy) ♠ A Q 2 ♥ A K Q J ♦ 2 ♣ K 10 9 8 7 |
||
| EAST (you) ♠ K J 9 ♥ 3 ♦ A K J 9 3 ♣ A Q 6 4 |
| SOUTH | WEST | NORTH | EAST |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | 1 ♦ |
| Pass | Pass | Double | 2 ♣ |
| Pass | 2 ♦ | Double | Pass |
| 2 ♥ | Pass | 3 ♥ | Pass |
| 4 ♥ | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Club five, seven, queen, jack.
Plan your defense.
Solution
| NORTH (dummy) ♠ A Q 2 ♥ A K Q J ♦ 2 ♣ K 10 9 8 7 |
||
| WEST ♠ 10 8 7 6 ♥ 8 6 3 ♦ 7 6 5 4 ♣ 5 2 |
EAST ♠ K J 9 ♥ 5 ♦ A K J 9 3 ♣ A Q 6 4 | |
| SOUTH ♠ 5 4 3 ♥ 10 9 7 4 2 ♦ Q 10 8 ♣ J 3 |
If West has a singleton club or the ten of hearts, playing three rounds of clubs will defeat the contrtact. That should be your basic plan of defense. But it may be possible to succeed also in layouts where West has two clubs but not the ten of hearts.
When South has two clubs and the ten of hearts, the contract is cold if declarer has six hearts (because West cannot have six diamonds). Assume South has only five trumps. Then, after ruffing high on the third round of clubs, declarer must draw three rounds of trumps before he can enjoy the rest of the clubs. But he lacks the entries to ruff two diamonds in dummy, therefore has only nine tricks: one spade, five trumps, one diamond ruff, two clubs. In that layout (see diagram), he can get a tenth trick from an endplay: third club ruffed high, three high trumps in dummy, two clubs discarding spades, diamond. You can and should prevent this endplay by depriving declarer of his throw-in card. If you cash the king of diamonds at trick two, then continue clubs, declarer is helpless.
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