Thinking Bridge: Phoenix NABC 2nd Day

Source ACBL Bulletins and Results

Defensive inferences: Who’s got what? By Eddie Kantar

In each of examples, you are always West leading a spade, an unbid suit, against a suit contract. North is the dummy, South, the declarer. The card played to the first trick by each player is in bold and slightly larger type. Tip: Before answering each example problem, ask yourself: If declarer had the asked-for missing honor, would the play have gone this way?

Answer the questions beneath each problem. Solutions are at the end of the quiz.

1.

	A 7 6
K 10 4 2		5
	8

Who has the queen, and why?

2.

	A Q 5 3
K 10 4 2		7
	6

Who has the jack, and why?

3.

	A 10 5 3
Q J 9 8		4
	6

Who has the King, and why?

4.

	Q J 9 8 6
A K 10 7 3		4
	2

Who has the 5? If South plays the 5, who has the 2?

5.

	K 4 3
Q 10 8 2		5
	6

Who has the jack, and why? Let’s hope you know who has the ace!

6.

	A 10 5 3
K 9 6		2
	Q

North leads low, East plays the 2, South plays the queen, and you win the king.
Who has the jack, and why?

7.

	Q 10 5 3
K 9 6		7
	A/4

Spades are trumps and South is known to have four spades. South starts with the ace and East plays the 7. Next, South leads the 4. Who has the jack, and why?

Answers

1. Partner has the queen. If declarer had the queen, he would play low from dummy.

2. Partner has the jack. If declarer had the jack, he would play low from dummy so he could lead low to the queen later.

3. Partner has the king. If declarer had the king, he would play low from dummy so he could finesse the 10 later.

4. (a) South has the 5. East would (should) play the 5 with 5-4 doubleton. (b) You can’t tell who has the 2 as South
may be concealing it or East could have the 4-2 doubleton.

5. East must have the jack. With the A-J-(x), South would play low from dummy.

6. East must have the jack. If South had Q-J-(x), he would start with the queen.

7. East must have J-x. With the A-J-x-x, South would start the suit from dummy and take a finesse.