K5
953
Q7543
K102

This deal comes from the 2013 Grand National Teams final.

Take these East cards and try your defense after the auction has gone 1NT-3NT.

 

 

 

	10842 J107 AJ10 AJ5
		K5 953 Q7543 K102

 

 

Your partner leads a club and dummy plays low. Plan your defense?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good question to ask is: "Which club did partner lead?"  At the table, the lead was the 4. When dummy played low, East inserted the 10. However, what if your partner had led a higher club, for example, the 9?

 

Now, when dummy plays low, you would know the queen is with declarer (partner wouldn't lead the 9 from Q9xx).  So, in this case, you should win the K. With no future in the red suits (partner would have led hearts with a good holding there), you should continue with the 10 (high from a remaining doubleton when returning a suit). Declarer plays the queen and overtakes in dummy to play a low spade. What is your thinking now?

 

If you robotically play low, the contract can't be set. Let's look at the full deal:

 

Vul: Both Dlr: South	10842 J107 AJ10 AJ5
A7 Q42 962 98643		K5 953 Q7543 K102
	QJ963 AK86 K8 Q7

On the Real Deal, South (trailing in the match) was swinging with his 1NT opening. I don't recommend this with 5-4 in the majors. However, when he received misdefense, the contract made. West actually led the 4 (I don't agree) and East naturally put in the 10 to the first trick. Declarer won the queen and worked on spades to set up 9 easy tricks. East won the first spade and it was all over (had West won, declarer could still make the contract). The winning defense is for West to lead a high club. East now will win the king and return the suit. When spades are played from dummy, East has to be alert to play second-hand high--not the normal procedure. When the K wins, East knocks out the last high club. West has the A to enjoy his long clubs and the defense gets 3 clubs and the 2 top spades for down one. If East doesn't hop with his K, West's ace is driven out prematurely. He now has no entry to his long clubs and declarer makes 3NT. The key to the defense was for West to lead a high club and for East to win the king and later play a high spade on the first round. If you think you and your partner would routinely have set this hand, I will tell you that this East-West were clearly on everyone's short list of all-time best partnerships in bridge history and they failed to set the contract.

 

At the other table, South opened a normal 1 and after a limit raise, played in 4. After a club lead, declarer would likely fail (unless he had the hand records in advance). However, the opening lead was a diamond (a heart would be equally fatal) and declarer had an easy time making his game.