| MONTHLY HAND | APR 2001 |
| INTRODUCTION
Defensive Planning The Merrimac Coup Defensive Hold Up Play Of the three parts of Bridge: Bidding, Declarer
Play, and Defense, probably Defense is the most difficult. This is an area
where true partnership communication and co-operation is crucial.
|
| BIDDING |
| South, with 13 points and no 5 card
major has to open the bidding in a minor suit. But which one? Standard
American Bidding (SAB) today suggests that the opening bid cannot be a
two card minor. So South opens 1 u.
Note: only with this particularly shaped hand; 4 Spades, 4 Hearts, 3 Diamonds,
and 2 Clubs, does South open a three card Diamond suit.
North, with more than 10 points responds in a lower ranking suit at the two level. He bids 2  .
This usually denies a 4 card major. South, with a minimum opener (13 -
15 points) rebids No Trump at the lowest possible level which is 2 No Trump.
(A 2  rebid would
show a hand with 6 Clubs and 5 Spades.) North with a very solid Club suit
and an entry to his hand with the A u,
boldly carries on to game with 3 No Trump. All pass. |
| OPENING LEAD |
| A good clue as to what the Opening Lead
should be is the bidding. North's response of
2
most likely denies a 4 card major. This means that the Defenders' long
suits, if there are any, are in the majors. West's safest and most aggressive
lead is from his 4 card Heart suit. Maybe on a good day partner has some
high honors or a 5 card suit.
What card should West lead? By a previous understanding with partner, West leads the 4th highest. That is, 4th from the top. (This allows East to use the Rule of 11. See March 2001.) Since West only has four Hearts, he is going to lead the lowest card in this suit which is the 5  . |
| DECLARER PLAY |
| Dummy's cards are tabled. Now is the time
for Declarer to reflect on her future line of play. Before deciding on
a particular strategy, Declarer should count winners off the top. Only
counting can lead to a really good strategy. Let's do it! 2 Spades, 0 Hearts,
1 Diamond and 0 Clubs. That is, three winners off the top; six short of
the nine needed to make 3 No Trump. The strategy has to be how to create
six winners.
The Opening Lead of the 5
can produce two tricks with the K
and Q . That leaves
four more to create. Playing Diamonds can produce a trick in that suit.
Three more winners to go. The only place where these winners are coming
from has to be the Club suit.
Most No Trump contracts are a race of the long suits: Declarer's long suit versus a Defender's long suit. The Defense has the advantage of starting the race first, but the disadvantage of playing only 13 cards. South sees that the Clubs can produce 5 winning tricks after the A
is played.
This means that South will play Clubs at her first opportunity. Once the Defender's A is knocked
out, she will have five Club tricks. It does not matter if the Defense
holds up a round with the A ,
the A u
in Dummy will be the entry to the good Clubs.
Should Declarer take her 3 or 4 winners off the top before playing Clubs? Definitely not! Taking the winners off the top will only create winners in the Defender's hands. So South has to take her losers early and play Clubs as soon as she gets the lead. |
| DEFENSE |
| Enter the realm of counting points, tricks
and hand construction. Let's go into the brain of the super Defender. Sitting
East, he makes note of his partner's (sitting West) Opening Lead of the
5 . Dummy comes down.
As the Declarer is now thinking and evaluating, the Defender does the same.
Dummy has 11 High Card Points (HCP); he (East) has 9 HCP's and Declarer
from the bidding has 13 - 15 HCP's. This leaves partner (West) with 5 -
7 HCP's. This valuable information might be used later in the play.
East can see the 2 ,
3 and 4
in the Dummy and in his hand. This means that partner's Opening Lead of
the 5 is his lowest
Heart. Since partner is leading 4th from the top, he has only a four card
Heart suit. Also, this lead denies a three card sequence in Hearts. If
partner had that, he would have led from the top of the sequence.
More inferences: partner does not have a five card Spade suit. If he did he would have led a Spade at trick one. As a matter of fact, if he had four Hearts and four Spades, he would lead the best of the two suits. West would also lead the top of a good three card Spade sequence. Since this was not done, West does not have many goodies (a Bridge tech term) in Spades. All this implies that Declarer has a 4 card Heart suit; probably a 4 card Spade suit; and has at least 2 tricks in Spades and Hearts. The super Defender carefully examines Dummy. A very solid six card Club suit. If the Declarer has the A ,
then that is 6 tricks. The
A u in Dummy makes 7 tricks. This plus the 2 tricks in the majors in Declarer's hand gives her 9 tricks and 3 No Trump. So to set the hand, East has to assume that partner has the A .
But still, drastic measures have to be taken to prevent the hand from making.
In Bridge, good players know when to panic. When East sees the six card Club suit in Dummy he panics. He and his partner must create 5 winners quickly. But how? No future in Spades and Hearts. Diamonds are a possibility even with the A u in Dummy. But if Declarer has Diamond honors, that will not work. East comes to the conclusion that attack by the Defenders is really not possible. What about defense by the Defenders? That is, prevent (like prevent defense in football) the Declarer from making all those Clubs tricks. Let's reason this through. Partner must have the A .
East has already made this assumption. Partner must also be able to HOLD
UP with the A
in order to break Declarer's access to Dummy.
However, even if partner does HOLD UP in Clubs, Declarer can get to Dummy with the A u. This card, the A u, is the link to the good Clubs. Therefore the A u must be knocked out before Clubs are played. But how? East, after winning the first trick with the A
returns a small Diamond. If West has the Q u
great, the
A u will be forced out. (If Declarer holds up with the A u, West will lead another Diamond, knocking out the Ace.) Suppose partner does not have the Q u, which is most likely the case since partner has 5 - 7 points; 4 points with the A and some
points in a Heart honor. Then Declarer will win East's Diamond return with
the Q u
in her hand and play Clubs. The A u
will still be in Dummy as the entry to the established Club winners. So
the lead of a small Diamond by East at trick 2 will not really work. But
there is a lead that East can make at trick 2 that will for certain knock
out the A u.
And that is . . . hang on, this is a big one. . . the K u!
Declarer has to win with the A u. (If she holds up with the A u, East leads another Diamond knocking out the Ace.) Now Declarer's entry to Dummy is gone and the Clubs, once set up, will not be available. But wait, just a minute! Doesn't the lead of the K u give Declarer a trick in Diamonds? True, Declarer might get an extra trick or two in Diamonds, but she will be denied the four winning Club tricks that will be stranded in Dummy. This play by East, of sacrificing a high honor in order to knock out an entry is known as the MERRIMAC COUP. This is a dramatic use of the unguarded King that often leaves the other players at the table gasping in awe. . . when it works. One more item before leaving the land of the Defense. West must HOLD UP with the A in
order to sever ties between the North and South hands. He can do this by
seeing if his partner follows suit when Clubs are played. If partner has
two Clubs, then Declarer also has two and West must HOLD
UP one round and win the second Club trick. But if partner has one
Club then Declarer has three and West must HOLD UP
two rounds and win the third Club trick. The combination of MERRIMAC
COUP and this HOLD UP will effectively kill
Dummy. |
| PLAY OF THE HAND |
| East wins the first trick with the K
and bangs down the K u:
the MERRIMAC COUP! This is ducked by Declarer and
East returns a second Diamond. Declarer has to win this in Dummy with the
Ace and then plays a high Club hoping that one of the Defender's has a
singleton A . Not to
be. East plays the 8
and West wishing to sever the link between the North and South hands plays
a small Club. There is no rush to win the first Club trick.
Declarer now plays a second high Club from Dummy. East and Declarer follow suit. West now knows that both East and Declarer started with two Clubs. And since this is Declarer's last Club, West wins this trick with the A .
The connection to Dummy has been cut; the Dummy is isolated. (If East had
a singleton Club - giving Declarer three Clubs - this would become apparent
on the second round of play and West would HOLD UP
for the second time.)
This HOLD UP plus the MERRIMAC COUP has rendered the Dummy useless. West plays his last and the trick is won by Declarer. At this point Declarer takes stock: 2 Spades, 2 Hearts, 3 Diamonds and 1 Club - eight tricks; one trick short of the nine needed to make 3 No Trump. What can Declarer do? Give up? Call a doctor? No! A desperate situation calls for desperate measures. And the Heart suit is a desperate measure. Declarer plays the K
hoping that the J
might fall making the 10
in Dummy a winner. But this is not the day.
There is one more shot with Hearts. If the suit splits 3/3 (3 cards with East and 3 cards with West), then the fourth Heart will be Declarer's ninth trick. (This is true because Declarer's last Heart will be the only Heart left.) However, this seems unlikely since West's opening lead was a small Heart. With nothing to lose the Declarer plays the Q .
East discards a Spade and a ninth trick in Hearts evaporates.
Declarer does not quit. There is one more possibility to make that elusive ninth trick. And that is to try to win a trick with the J .
For this to work, West has to have the Q .
A fifty percent chance for this to happen. Here goes; South plays a small
Spade, West small, the J
from Dummy and . . . East produces the Q .
That's Bridge; you cannot make every hand. If this were the case there
would just be bidding and scoring. (Only in Bridge heaven can one make
every hand. It does get quite boring, so maybe try the other place.) East
cashes 2 Diamonds for down one. The Defense took 1 Heart, 1 Club, 1 Spade
and 2 Diamonds. A valiant effort by Declarer; and a magnificent defense
by East/West.
QUESTIONS:
2. What lead can West make that allow Declarer to make the contract? |
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