Better Bridge in Barry County
By Gerald Stein
North
♠ K Q 7 2
♥ J 7 6 4
♦ J 7
♣ Q J 3
| ||
West
♠ 9 6
♥ A Q 9 8
♦ Q 8 5 4 2
♣ A 4
|
East
♠ 8 3
♥ 10 5 3
♦ A 9
♣ 10 9 8 6 5 2
| |
South
♠ A J 10 5 4
♥ K 2
♦ K 10 6 3
♣ K 7
|
Dealer:
Vulnerable:
Lead:
|
West
Both
A♣
|
North
Pass
3♠
Pass
|
East
2♥
Pass
Pass
|
South
2♠
4♠
|
West
1♥
Pass
Pass
|
Recently, in the Defense in the 21st Century bridge class going on currently in the Battle Creek area, the emphasis has been on defensive leads, defensive signals, and being a good defensive bridge player. Because bridge players are on defense 50% of the time, it is important to hone your defensive skills by using defensive signals when it appears that your opponents have overbid. Today’s auction might be just the case. With West opening the bidding at 1♥, which to me seems to be a questionable bid given that most modern players have given up on the 4-card major opening and have gone to the American Standard position of opening majors with a 5-card suit, still it happens, and the astute bridge player will recognize that bridge players like to bid.
Today’s hand, taken from a similar hand found in Mike Lawrence’s 1973 bridge book How to Read Your Opponents’ Cards, shows what can happen when the defense plays their cards right. What do we know about the hands from the bidding? While the bidding on the West hand might be suspect, still it does and will continue to happen. West bid 1♥ with only four hearts and 12 high card points and one length point for 13 total points. North passed, and East supported the heart bid with three hearts, four high card points with the A♦, and several dummy points. Quite a stretch, but nevertheless, it is done all the time.
North and South entered the bidding with South’s overcall of two spades, showing a strong spade suit and good total points to go to the two-level in the bidding ladder. With West passing, North supported the spade overcall and bid 3♠. A pass by East ended the East-West bidding, but South pushed on to 4♠.
With everyone bidding, something seemed amiss. Who had the points? Were there enough points to make a game when we all know that a major suit needs 25-26 points to make a game? Surely, someone was stretching here.
Counting just the high card points, it is easy to see that East-West have 16 high card points between them: 12 in the West hand and four in the East hand. The North-South team has the rest with 10 points in the North and 14 in the South. That amounts to 24 and may or may not be enough to bring home the ambitious game of the North-South team. Will good defense prevail, or will the North-South team carry the day with a squeaky game made and scored?
The defense always has the first shot and the opening lead. This is a crucial time for both defenders to be on the same page. They need to cooperate as a team to defeat the four-spade contract. The opening lead from West was the A♣, not wanting to ruin the strong A♥ Q♥ combination. Here is where East as a cooperating partner must give the proper signal for the defensive team. What did East play as a signal card on the A♣ led by partner West?
Because East-West in their partnership agreement play attitude signals on leads from each other, East must signal to West that she did not want a continuation of the club suit. With attitude signals, a low card as a played card is a discouraging signal; a high card is an encouraging card. In this case, East knew that leading a second club would only set up the declarer’s club suit, and it would be easy for South to make the four-spade contract. East played the 2♣, as discouraging a signal card as she had in her hand. The message here was loud and clear: switch to another suit.
But which suit? Here West must make the right decision. East had signaled a discouraging sign. Find another suit. Ruling out the trump suit since it appeared that North-South have nine trumps between them, there would be nothing there. The heart suit must be protected to pick up two tricks, one with the A♥ and one with the Q♥. The only remaining suit was the diamond suit. West picked a low diamond on the second trick to lead back to her partner East. East took the trick with the A♦ and she knew the lead had to be a heart lead. The small heart lead from East trapped the K♥ in the South hand. West took the two heart tricks that they deserved and handed North-South a minus 100 points, down one trick.
Good defensive bridge work is a team effort. Each part of the team must be aware of attitude signals, switching to another suit, and returning the right suit. The defense is on a race. They have the first advantage, and if they are to be successful defenders, then they must play their cards in the right order and claim the defensive prize. If East-West had not been using attitude signals, it is highly likely that West would have continued the small club lead at the second trick, handing North-South a game that they did not deserve to win. Attitude is the name of the game for defensive bridge players.
Gerald Stein
November 9, 2012
Number of words: 969
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