«The Defense» Part IV

Contract: 3NT

Lead: J

West lead the J, dummy played a little one and is East turn.

From this moment: What would be your plan of defense to defeat the contract?.

Solution:

«The most outstanding feature of a quality player is that he does not react always in the same way to almost the same situations, he focuses each contract individually and immediately move away from the normal, if circumstances warrant.»

¿ How would a common player in East position?

The common player woul win the lead with his K and returned another club to remove dummy’s A. Afterwards when he is in with his Q he would play a club that declarer would win with the Q.

Finally when he is in again with the A, he would not have any club, and the defense wouldn’t be able to stop declarer to make his contract: 3 spades, one heart, three diamonds and two clubs.

¿ Is there another way to play the defense?

Lets see: The J lead denies the Q, and watching dummy’s and our own cards we know that the J is the highest of a sequence. Now if we suppose that declarer has: Q x x is impossible to stop him doing 2 club tricks.

The problem here is that despite giving two tricks, the defense don’t have to lose communication between their hands, that’s why East must play the 3 in the first trick.

When East is in the first time with the Q he must be very carefull and unblock the club suit, and so he plays his K, declarer cant play other card than the A.

Now when East is in again with his A, he wil have a little club to play and defeat the contract. With this play, the defense makes: one heart, one diamond and three clubs.

The four hands were:

K Q 3 K Q 6 4 A J 7 5 A 2

J 9 6 2 7 3 8 2 J 10 9 8 7

10 8 5 A J 10 8 Q 10 4 K 5 3

A 7 5 9 5 2 K 9 6 3 Q 6 4