Both Sides Now, Part 1

Getting the basics right is essential for effective defense. Here's a hand from a recent club pairs game; we will look at it from the perspective of each defender in turn.

	♠ J 4 ♥ K J 4 ♦ 8 7 6 5 2 ♣ K 7 2
	N W E S	♠ Q 7 5 ♥ Q 9 3 ♦ J 10 4 ♣ A J 8 3

Partner	North	You	South
		Pass	1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	3 ♦	All pass

North's 1NT call was forcing one round. Partner led the ♣ 4 (standard leads and carding), declarer plays the ♣ 2 from dummy. Your play?

Before playing to the first trick, it's time to do some homework. It certainly looks like a fourth-best club. You can see the two and three, so you know the four is partner's lowest club.

• The ♣ 4 can't be a singleton. If it were, declarer would have a five-card club suit. Yet declarer bid diamonds, on what would then be three diamonds and five clubs. 
• The ♣ 4 can't be a doubleton, because partner would not lead low from a doubleton.
• Could the ♣ 4 be from a three-card holding? Possibly, and there's no way to rule this out. But our play to this trick will be the same either way.

It's still your turn. Your play?

Recall the Third Hand Basics: "Third hand high, but no higher than necessary, and keep control over dummy's honor." Playing the ace here would establish the king in dummy. And if declarer has the guarded queen, that would give her two club tricks! Playing the ace here can never gain a club trick, and usually gives up a trick. So, basic defensive card play mandates playing the jack. 

But wait, don't play the jack just yet... What if partner has both the ♣ 10 and ♣ 9? Then you could just play a very smug ♣ 8. Alas, not possible. If partner had the ten and nine, partner would have led the top-of-sequence ten. From Q-10-9-4, or 10-9-x-4, or 10-9-4, the standard lead is the ten. We can rule out those possible holdings for partner.

So, the ♣ J it must be. The jack holds the trick, declarer plays the ♣ 6. Partner must have the club queen, as you hoped. Now what?

Assuming the ♣ 4 was fourth-best, you now know the layout of the club suit almost exactly. Declarer started with two clubs, one of which is the ten or nine. Recall that partner's lead denied having both the ten and nine. If partner has four clubs without the ten or nine, then declarer would have started with ten-nine doubleton and would have played one of those cards. Therefore, partner started with Q-10-5-4 or Q-9-5-4 and declarer has the other high spot card.

If you lead any club now, you will set up dummy's king. (You could try leading the ace just in case the king decides to commit suicide, but that never seems to work at my table.) 

Notice that if partner gets in and leads the ♣ Q, that will trap ("smother") declarer's remaining high spot card. But partner doesn't know that declarer started with a doubleton. Is there a way to tell partner that you had four clubs instead of three? Unfortunately no, not directly. But you can give partner a hint...

You have to lead something other than a club. Partner must have some other high cards outside of clubs, because declarer declined the game invitation and thus denied a maximum hand.

• If declarer has ace-king of spades, leading a spade trashes your ♠ Q.
• If declarer has the ace of hearts, leading a heart trashes your ♥ Q.

Exiting with a diamond seems best to me; maybe partner's high honor is in diamonds. At least a diamond lead is unlikely to give up a diamond trick. The standard lead from J-10-4 is the jack, but I would lead the ♦ 4 in this case.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

-- Ray
Better Bridge in 5 Minutes. Guaranteed! (or the next one is free)