Fuente: Bridge – The Scotsman 18/06/13
DEFENCE is surely the most difficult part of the game, but there are times when defenders have more information than declarer, and can take advantage of that knowledge. Heather Dhondy reported this deal from the Mixed Teams in Poznan, where the Webers from Germany found a great defence. Perhaps the most significant decision came in the auction, where East, taking the vulnerability into account, did not make any sort of pre-emptive overcall in spades. Once Jeremy Dhondy had opened the bidding Heather was always going to ignore West’s overcall and bid the heart game.
West led an innocent-looking two of spades. East could recognize this as a singleton, but declarer had no inkling. We can see that Heather makes ten tricks easily by winning, cashing dummy’s top hearts, crossing to a diamond honour and drawing trump. But it seemed likely that West had the king of spades, and a successful finesse would allow a club discard in case trump broke 4-1. What risk was there in playing low from dummy? East won the king, but did not immediately return a spade, which would allow declarer to discard a club. Instead she led an extremely clever two of clubs. West won the jack, and underled his remaining honours, expecting partner to ruff and play a spade. She won the ten of clubs, and, with three tricks in the bag, finally played a second spade to bring about a trump promotion. Whatever declarer did, she could no longer avoid losing a heart.