WHAT DO I DO NOW?
By Larry Matheny
While the strategy
needed to play or defend bridge hands is often obvious, some hands offer
several possible solutions. In this
session, I am going to “talk” us through various options as they occur at the
table. Let’s start with a basic defensive
problem.
#1 A Defensive
Problem
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I open the bidding but am quickly put into a defender’s role. My partner leads the ten of spades and I win
the king. I continue with the ace and
partner follows with the seven. Since
it’s clear declarer started with the Q63 of spades, my best defense may be to
play a third round of spades hoping partner has a trump higher than dummy’s
nine. Is this the best defense? What do I do now?
Before I lead another spade, I realize I can get my partner involved in
the decision. I cash the ace of clubs
and I’m surprised when my partner encourages by playing the nine. He would not have done this if he could have
trumped a spade so I’m going to trust him and lead another club. Partner wins the king and declarer is quickly
down one. Declarer wins the third club
and claims the rest of the tricks. I see
that if I had followed my first instinct of a third round of spades, South would
have won the trick, drawn trumps, and discarded two clubs on dummy's good
diamonds. I also see South should not have
accepted the invitation. His honor
holding outside of the heart suit was poor and he should not count the spade
queen as it will rarely be of help to him.
Here is the entire hand:
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#2.
A Control Problem
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West leads a top
heart and then switches to a trump. I
see I am in a very thin contract but if I make it, I should earn a good
score. I have three heart losers and
hopefully only one spade to lose. Since
they will return another trump when they regain the lead, I won’t be able to
ruff a heart in dummy. One possible line
is to draw two rounds of trumps and then try to discard the hearts on dummy’s
diamonds. But, they will likely ruff
early and cash their heart tricks. What
do I do now?
I see the
solution. I simply have to follow with a
low spade from each hand. Now I win the
return, and assuming trumps divide 3-2, draw trumps and run my diamonds.
This hand shows the
importance of making your plan before playing too quickly.
Here is the entire
hand:
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#3. A Bidding
Problem In a pairs game I
pick up this hand: I am in third chair
and am delighted when my partner opens the auction with 1 I’m not going to
give up on slam so I now ask if he holds the spade queen. His response of 6 It occurs to me that
my heart king might be in harm’s way.
A lead through my king could be disastrous. I’m going to move to 6NT to protect my
king. Here is the entire
hand:
West doesn’t lead
the ace of hearts so I take all thirteen tricks. Note that 6 #4 A Crazy
Hand
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When my partner
puts down the dummy he says “I hope you have a spade stopper”. Fortunately I do but now I have to figure out
how West could pass and then enter the auction vulnerable at the
three-level. She leads the ace-king and
a third spade. East follows once and
then discards two hearts as I pitch one heart and one diamond from dummy. Since West started with eight spades headed
by the AK, I don’t think she will also hold the king of diamonds. I also don’t expect the clubs or diamonds to
break 3-2. I have seven tricks and will
have to find two more. What do I do now?
I see a plan that
will work even if East has length in both minor suits. I lead the ace-king of clubs and I’m not
surprised when West has only one club.
Next, I lead a club to the queen followed by a low diamond to my jack. Now I cash the top two hearts and exit with
the last club. East wins the jack but
has to lead a diamond away from his king.
I have my nine tricks: 1 spade, 2 hearts, 3 diamonds, and 3 clubs. Here is the entire hand:
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#5. Who Has The
Trumps?
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West leads the ten of
diamonds and East, after hesitating for a moment, follows with the three. I win with the jack and stop to count my
losers. It seems the queen of diamonds
is on my right so besides the ace of clubs, my only other losers will be in the
heart suit. This is a pairs event so
overtricks are important. How do I play
the trumps?
If West has a long
spade suit, it seems reasonable to play him for shortness in hearts. But, that diamond lead sure seemed like a
singleton so if he’s looking to ruff, I don’t think he will be short in hearts. Following that hunch, I’m going to start with
the king of hearts from my hand. East
shows out so I can now hold my trump losers to one. Without that opening lead, the normal play
would be low to the heart ace and back toward the South hand. Making five should be a great result. Note that with length in my trump suit, West
should have started with a spade lead hoping to shorten my trumps. Here is the entire hand:
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#6. Count Your Tricks
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I’m playing in a
team game but still reject my partner’s invitation to game. West leads a low diamond to East’s king. East continues with the ace and a third
diamond. I can count seven tricks: 4
hearts, 1 diamond, and 2 clubs. If the
missing clubs divide 3-2, I can establish that suit for additional tricks. Is this my best line? What do I do now?
It occurs to me
that if I lose a club along with three diamonds I am in a position to also lose
two spade tricks if the honors in that suit are behind me or I guess
wrong. I think the problem of this hand
is to not lose a club trick. I going to
win the diamond queen and lead a low spade toward dummy. West wins the queen and cashes the jack of diamonds
but the defense is finished. I can
establish my eighth trick in spades and am pleased to see the contract could
have been defeated if I had led clubs. The
job of simply counting tricks is a task too often forgotten. Here is the entire hand:
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#7. Entry Issues
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West leads the four of diamonds and I stop to
count my tricks. It looks like I have
only six: 1 spade, 2 diamonds, and 3 clubs.
The club jack might drop to give me a seventh trick but first I need to
deal with the opening lead. East follows
with the seven. What do I do now?
I start to win the
trick cheaply with the nine but stop to think it through. I see that if I win the first diamond with the
nine, the opponents can allow the king to win and capture the third round. That would mean no entry to dummy’s clubs. To avoid this problem, I’m going to win the
first diamond with my king. Next I unblock
the ace-king of clubs and am delighted to see the jack drop. Now I lead a low diamond to the queen and East
discards a spade. I cash the queen-ten
of clubs discarding a spade and a heart and I have my seven tricks: 1 spade, 2
diamonds, and 4 clubs. Notice that if I
win the first trick with the nine of diamonds, careful defense will defeat the
contract. Here is the entire hand:
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#8. Dangerous Opponent
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West leads the five of spades and East follows with the queen. Before playing, I stop to count my tricks. I
have six tricks in the majors and it looks like I can establish three more in
the minors. However, if the clubs don't
break 3-2, I will have to knock out two aces and the defenders will probably be
able to establish their spade suit. My
ten of spades in an important card if I can keep East out of the lead. What do I do now?
I see the answer. After winning
the first trick, I lead a heart to dummy and continue with a low club. The defense has no answer to this. If East rises with the ace, I have four club
tricks. If the club ace is in the West
hand, spades cannot be safely continued into my K10. East ducks and my club jack wins the
trick. I realize a 4-1 club break is
possible so I switch to diamonds for two more tricks. This works and I see that if I had continued
clubs, I would have been defeated. Here
is the entire hand:
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#9. Slam Bidding
In a team game I
pick up this great hand: 
AK109 
AKJ10874 
A 
K. I decide to open with a forcing 2
bid and am pleased with my partner responds with a game-forcing 2
response. I now bid hearts and my
partner shows a spade suit. I raise
spades and partner next cue bids a control in clubs. This is all I need to hear and I trot out our
Roman Key Card convention with 4NT. My
partner shows one keycard which I know
to be the ace of clubs and I have to decide how to continue. Do I bid the grand slam? What do I do now?
The RKC convention
has another feature I am now going to use: the queen ask. I ask for the queen and my partner
disappoints me by denying that card.
Since he has five or more spades, the queen might still drop so is it
worth it to try for all thirteen tricks?
I’m going to say no
for two reasons: 1) I really hate going
down in a grand slam in a team game, and 2) more importantly, I think we have a
strong lead in this match and don’t need a grand slam to win it.
Here is the entire
hand:
Hand #9 AK109
Dlr N
AKJ10874
Vul None A
K
7 Q54 Me East South West
32
Q95 2 Pass
2 Pass
QJ1063 974 2 Pass
2 Pass
Q8542 J963 3 Pass 4 Pass
J8632 4NT Pass
5* Pass
6 5 Pass
5** Pass
K852 6 Pass Pass Pass
A107
*one
keycard
**sorry,
no queen of spades
As you can see,
this time it was right to stay out of the grand slam. They bid it at the other table and were soon
disappointed when the spade queen did not drop.
They felt they were behind in the match so their decision was
reasonable.
I hope from these
examples you see how important it is to stop and use all of the available
information. This data may come from the
auction, the opening lead, or the play of the hand. Your decision point on how to use this
information may occur on the opening lead or well into the hand. My advice: Slow down and think!