I end up saying this quite frequently when Opps have freely and emphatically bid to a 3NT contract over Partner's suit overcall and they woodenly lead 4th highest from KJ87x or similar and are surprised when their lead gives 1 or 2 tricks away and allows the contract to make. The following hand was a case in point. Suppose you are East against Precision Opps, looking at the following hand at Love All:


  7
  A1042
  KQJ95
  Q75


Bidding
West        North        East       South
No            1 ⁽¹⁾        No          1
1           1NT            No          2
No            3NT            All Pass

⁽¹⁾ Nebulous Precision 1

What do you lead? The thing you have to consider here is that North is anticipating and almost wanting a Spade lead here. The bidding makes that utterly clear. On this bidding, the likelyhood is that you have a considerably better hand than your Partner, despite the fact that they have overcalled and you have remained silent. So don't give North the tempo he's hoping for: Try something else!!!. The King of Diamonds would be on the table before the echoes of North's 3NT had faded had I been East, for example. Nothing on this earth would persuade me to waste time on a Spade lead here.

Now look at the hand from the other side. Samet (Doru77) and I were playing OCP, but it had been a while since he had used the system and was a little rusty:

North
  AQ3
  KQ
  A874
  10962

South
  9542
  J873
  -
  KJ843

We'll draw a bit of a vei, over the bidding, which you can see above. I really don't want to play this hand in 1 or 1NT on an almost guaranteed Diamond lead, hence my sub-minimum 1 response and 2 rebid. Unfortunately, Samet took my 2 as showing lots of extra values. Fortunately the defence were fast asleep and East tamely led a Spade to West's 10 and Samet's Queen. Samet didn't need a second chance: he ran the 9 to West's Ace. West was clearly still hoping to bring the Spades in because he continued the Spade attack, Declarer taking their Ace and East discarding, of all things, a Heart(!). Samet was now in complete control: He led the K to East's Ace. East finally led the K , but it was far far too late. Samet won the Ace, cashed the Q , took the marked Club finesse again and came to 10 tricks when East's 10 fell under Dummy's Jack because of their earlier foolish discard on the second Spade.

On a Diamond lead Declarer cannot possibly come to more than 7 tricks before EW rattle off 4 Diamonds and the two round Aces. The difference between 3N+1 and 3N-2 was about 14 IMPs.

Think about the bidding and the hand in general before you lead to trick 1!!!!

Occasionally a hand comes along where you get everything right, which can be very satisfying, especially when OCP has got you to a reasonable contract when a third of the tables are passing the hand out. You play to give yourself every chance just to make a contract that isn't totally straightforward, but end up making overtricks because some or all of what you played for actually came about. This was a simple hand I played with Eszter yesterday. At Green vs Red you are playing in 1NT:

North
  KQ84
  QJ
  Q875
  Q63

South
  1032
  A654
  A62
  K102

Playing OCP you opened 1NT 2nd-in hand and everyone passed. West leads the 3 . How do you assess your chances?

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Although you have 23 HCP between the two hands and 1NT ought to be fairly straightforward, your lack of intermediates is a worry here. You can count on 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, a Diamond and a Club, but need to engineer two more tricks from somewhere. You can play the Queen of Diamonds at trick 1, but that's putting all of your eggs in one basket, and if West has the King, you will always get a second Diamond trick. You play small from Dummy therefore and East inserts the 9, taken by your Ace. What now?

You need to try to make something of the Spades, because there are too many intermediates missing in the Diamonds, and you're never going to get rich in Clubs or Hearts, so at trick 2 I led the 10 of Spades, playing for West to have the 9. West covered my 10 with the Jack and Dummy's Queen was taken by East's Ace. East switched back to the 10 . West erred badly by winning this trick with the King rather than letting the 10 ride and leaving themselves with 2 Diamond winners. He then led a Heart and I took East's King with my Ace.

Re-assess!: Two tricks so far. It looks fairly certain that West started with KJxx and the play in the suit has set up a 3rd-round finesse against their Jack. I've therefore got a Spade, a second Heart, and 2 Diamonds to look forward to, and cannot be denied a Club, so the contract seems secure. Sticking to my original plan, I now finessed the 8 of Spades, which held the trick (Yeehah!), and then tried a Club to my 10, which lost to West's Jack (You can't have everything in life and 10 tricks on these cards would be preposterous). West continued with a second Club to Dummy's Queen and East's Ace and East continued with a 3rd Club to my King.

Re-assess!: 4 tricks now, but I'm well in control. The finesse against West's Jack succeeds, and the Spades were 3-3 so I was able to swiftly wrap up the rest for 9 tricks and a joint "top" of 3½ IMPs.

Brilliant play? No, not really. You can only play as well as Opps allow you on many occasions. Here an initial Heart lead might have left me struggling to find my 7th trick before EW got their 7th. Similarly, West rising with the King of Diamonds on the second round of the suit was a serious mistake, because it exposed their Jack. What I got right here was to realise after trick 1 that I had to try to make something of the Spades, and just playing a small Spade towards Dummy is an "all or nothing" play for West to have the Ace. Leading the 10 encouraged West to cover with their Jack and now when they turned up with the 9 and the suit is split 3-3, I've ended up with 3 tricks in the suit rather than 1 or 2.

The other thing is to do with developing tricks before you cash quick tricks elsewhere. I could have continued Spades immediately after finessing the 8, but that puts a tiny bit of pressure on me to find a discard ( easy enough), but also it doesn't give Opps the opportunity to mistakenly discard a Spade, which would have assured me of the 3rd Spade trick whatever the position was. I ended up taking the last 5 tricks having spent the time developing those 5 tricks and getting rid of Opps' winners that were in my way. The other thing about cashing winners is that it can compromise transport between the two hands when you might be able to use those entries back and forth later on.

On the scorecard, the hand was inevitably passed out at several tables. Several pairs were going off in 2NT or even 1NT (or 2 or 2 ), but the biggest block were in 1NT making exactly or with 1 overtrick only. Only one other pair gained 9 tricks in No Trumps

Defending can be tough at the best of times, but trusting your Partner is a crucial part of successful defence and you make life much harder for you and Partner if you don't. Counting the hand as best you can is also a critical facet of defence.

This was an interesting hand I played with Brian this morning.

Opps have bid to 2 via the following auction (You are South):

West         North       East        South
                                 No            No
1            No            1NT          2
2            All Pass

Partner leads the 8 and you can see

                            East
                            A
                            Q10
                            10543
                            Q109532

South
  Q97
  K43
  AJ9762
  4

You rise with the Ace of Diamonds and Declarer contributes the Queen. How do you plan the defence?

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Clearly Partner started with a singleton Diamond, so there's a Diamond ruff available. Your Queen of Spades will also be a trick. A Club lead from you at trick 2 is potentially attractive: You might be able to engineer a Club ruff, but the likelyhood is that you would be ruffing with your natural trump trick, so a Club ruff is only good if you can get two Club ruffs (ie: you're looking for Partner to have something like Axx. Kxx in Partner's hand doesn't work as well, because Partner will only be able to give you 1 Club ruff after taking their King of Clubs unless Declarer ducks from Axx).

Another problem with that idea is that that would mean Partner probably has at least 6-card Hearts and since clearly there are a fair number of points "missing" on this auction, the likelyhood is that you and Partner have missed a decent Heart contract (If Declarer has 6+ Spades, 2 Diamonds and 3 Clubs, they can only have 2 Hearts at most). It's perhaps unlikely that Partner would stay silent over 1 with a 6-card Heart suit and a fair number of points (as it turns out Partner has the best hand at the table)

Similarly, going for Diamond ruffs in Partner's hand is also attractive, because a third Diamond through Declarer's hand might promote a trump in Partner's hand, and you can always suggest a Club back by leading the 2 at trick 2.

Be that as it may, you decide to go for the 2 Club ruffs in your hand and lead your singleton Club at trick 2. Declarer plays the Jack and Partner wins the King. After a little thought, Partner continues with the 5 and your King wins the trick.

What is going on? This is one of the places where "trusting your partner" comes into play. You know Partner can see the 2 and 3 of Clubs in Dummy and you led the 4, so your Club lead was a singleton or from Hxx(x). Clearly Partner has underled his Ace of Hearts (Dummy played the 10 on the previous trick so there's no way Declarer has ducked holding the Ace). It's obvious, therefore, that (1) Partner is desperate for their Diamond ruff and (2) they have determined that giving you a Club ruff is not possible. How can that be? The only explanation is that they have all of the Clubs and know that Declarer's Jack of Clubs was a singleton. You give partner their Diamond ruff. They cash the Ace of Hearts and exit with a Spade to Declarer's Ace. The 3 is now led from Dummy. What do you do?

You and Partner have already taken 5 tricks. At this stage you have to trust that Partner has not given you a Club ruff for a reason and that reason can only be that they started with something like xxx, Axxx, x, AKxxx. That would give Declarer KJ10xxx, Jxxx, KQ, J, a thin Opener, to be sure, but the play is totally consistent with that. All you have to do is to play a Diamond here, Declarer is forced to ruff and you can sit back a wait for your Spade trick.

At the table, Brian decided to go for his Club ruff and ruffed in with the 9. Declarer  overruffed, cashed the King of Spades, dropping your Queen and Partner's Jack simultaneously and was only -1 because they had to give a trick up to Partner's 9 at the end. If you had given Partner their ruff at trick 2, however, the defence can take 8 tricks in all (A , ruff, A , K , ruff, to Dummy's Ace, and you still have a top Club, the Queen of Spades and 9 to come), which would have been +1½ IMPs rather than -1 IMP.

(To be fair to Brian, it was 4:30am his time so he was running on vapour and with distractions at home, so I am not being critical of him here. I couldn't perform at all at 4:30am!! ). As I said at the top, defence is difficult at the best of times, but hopefully the above will show how you need to trust that Partner sometimes "knows" better than you do (not because they're a better player, but because they might have a better view of the critical aspects of the hand) and is worthy of your trust until proved otherwise. Also you need to try to reconcile your "image" of the hand with what you already know from the bidding and, as here, with the implications of any possible image. If, for example, North had started with Axx here, then they must have 6+ Hearts (if Declarer has 6+ Spades) and it's very unlikely that they would stay silent over 1 , so that possible image of the hand has to be discarded when your defensive plan for the hand is made. If Partner has 4-card Clubs, then you are only ever getting one Club ruff and that's no good to you, since you've an inevitable trump trick anyway, so it's simply not worth playing for any Club ruffs.

An illustrative hand for defensive carding came up during some practice hands on last night's OCP Complex seminar in IAC. It's a simple enough hand, but if the defence don't have their act together, you could easily miss the point and not get the tricks you need:

You are East. North South have had a "complex" auction as follows

1 - 1   //    8-10 any shape
1 - 1NT   //   Any 4441  /  Relay
2 - 3    //   Singleton Club / Range Beta
3 - 4    //   Max, 3 Controls

You lead your 8 of Diamonds, and this is what you can see:

                             East
                              742
                              Q1098
                              ( 8 )
                              AQ653
South (Dummy)
  AK106
  65
  K62
  10974

Partner wins the Ace of Diamonds and returns the 3, which you ruff. What now?

If you don't underlead your AQ with the 3, then you're not "with the program". Partner is likely to have 8-9 HCP on this auction and Declarer is known to have a singleton Club. Cashing the Ace of Clubs and then leading a small one is therefore not going to work. Partner's 3 return is telling you they have the King of Clubs, since clearly they had 4 Diamonds to choose from when they returned a Diamond for you to ruff and they chose their lowest. On only have one chance to get this right, because as soon as Declarer gains the lead, the first thing they're going to do is to draw trumps. Mentally "giving" Partner the Ace of Diamonds and King of Clubs puts them right  in the region of high card points you would expect them to have, and it's utterly consistent with the bidding (North being known to have a singleton Club).

Like I said a very simple hand and few experts would get this one wrong, even on different bidding that didn't point to a Club Singleton with North, but it's amazing how some [even advanced] players would fail here.

Saw a lovely hand during the European Pairs Championships today, featuring Zia Mahmood and Jeff Meckstroth


North
  10x
  AQJ
  AJ10xxx
  xx


South
  AKQJxx
  x
  xx
  AQJx


Zia was South and opened 2 (rather light) and they zoomed up to 6 by South and then Meckstroth, no doubt emboldened by Zia's initial 2 Opening, decided to bid one more and they ended up in 7 . West led a small trump.


Plan the play.


Clearly you absolutely need to find both of the round suit kings onside, so you have to make that assumption and play on that basis. Zia did, but his plan was to take two Clubs finesses and then ruff one Club high in Dummy and use the finesse to create a parking spot for the losing Diamond.


I wish I could tell you of a happy outcome on this one, but West ruffed the second Club (East having started with K1098xx) and Zia ended up two down. If you make the assumption that the round suit kings are both onside, though, the double squeeze, using Diamonds as the pivot suit, is a respectable alternative to Zia's plan:


Declarer wins the first trick with the 10 and takes the Club finesse. Three more rounds of Spades follow (West started with 4) and now the Heart finesse. When that wins, Declarer is home and dry: The losing Diamond goes away on the Ace of Hearts and now a second Club finesse and the Ace of Clubs brings this position



                      North
                     
                      J
                      AJ10
                     
West                                    East
  -                                        -
  K                                        x
  Qxx                                    Kx
  -                                        K
                    South
                    xx
                    -
                    x
                    x


Now Declarer plays his last Spades. West can shed a Diamond and East a Heart on the Spade, but on the second Spade West, discarding before Dummy, has to come down so the stiff Queen of Diamonds in order to retain the K . Declarer throws the now useless J!H from Dummy and East in turn has to hold onto the K!C and must therefore blank their King of Diamonds. 2 Diamonds now wrap up 13 tricks and the Bols Brilliancy Prize for Declarer!


Both lines obviously need the Club and Heart kings onside. Zia's plan needs the Clubs no worse than 5-2 (unlucky), but the Double Squeeze doesn't really need anything else and works even on 6-1 Clubs and almost any distribution of the Hearts.


The full hand:



                      North
                      10x
                      AQJ
                      AJ10xxx
                      xx
West                                    East
  9xxx                                  8
  K109xx                              xxxx
  Qxx                                    Kx
  x                                        K109xxx
                      South
                      AKQJxx
                      x
                      xx
                      AQJx


Not a good result for our heroes, but perhaps justice was done, because it's an outrageous contract and EW would have been justifiedly aggrieved by their zero on this Board if Zia had managed to bring it home.

Defensive errors and a fair amount of luck on my part were the major factors on this hand, but also not giving up or panicking, and seeking a distribution (eg 10x with West) that would allow me get out with most of my skin intact given no entries to my hand after trick 2.


I read "Precision Bidding & Precision Play" and "The Expert Game", both by Terence Reese, about once a year, because they are two of the finest books on Bridge ever written. One of the best sections is on making assumptions. Here given the probability of 4-2 Spades and 3-5 or 2-6 Clubs, I had to hope for 10x in Diamonds with West, because that was the only way I could engineer a relatively safe exit from Dummy. West Ducking the second Heart was a bonus that allowed me the squeeze for the overtrick, but even without that, my line is still making 9 tricks given the early play.


East could have made my life impossible by ducking the Queen of Diamonds and taking the second one and cashing the Ace, because now when he puts me on table with the second Heart, I have no safe exit card and no way back to hand.


Glad you enjoyed the hands, anyway

Another hand from my game with Eszter last night. I hope she will forgive me for detailing this hand, but the points illustrated are really important: I've changed the positions to make the hand easy to "see":

You are South, EW Vulnerable, Dealer East:
North
  10
  AJ972
  K754
  QJ7

South
  974
  K108543
  8
  A42

Bidding
East   South   West   North
No      2         2      No
3      No          4      5
No      No           X        All Pass

(In case you're wondering about North's initial Pass over 2 , I felt I had too many Hearts and too many hcp and didn't want to push EW to a making game they might not bid otherwise. Once they had bid 4 , I obviously had a very cheap sacrifice.)

The early play - Making a Plan
West cashed the Ace of Spades and switched to the Club 10, covered in Dummy and you take East's King with your Ace.

What's your plan?
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.
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That's the really crucial question, because you need to have a plan. This contract is at most -1 (losing 1 trick in each side suit) but you really need to try to make it, because some NS pairs might buy the contract in 4 , and some EW pairs might push on to 5 , which is probably going to be off with the K onside.

Although the Clubs have started well for you, you have a losing club which needs to be discarded. The only reasonable chance for that is to find the Ace of Diamonds onside. There is very little chance of finding West with 5 Diamonds (and East with Axx), which would allow you to ruff out the Ace, and there is similarly no chance of the 98 of Clubs disappearing into thin air.

So your plan should be a very simple one, A Heart to Dummy's Ace and a Heart back to hand (however the trumps are distributed - in practice East had both of them) and then lead a Diamond towards the King. West, holding the Ace of Diamonds, is powerless. They either let the King of Diamonds win, in which case your 3rd losing trick disappears, or they rise with the Ace and now the King of Diamonds takes care of your 3rd Club. If it turns out that East has the Ace of Diamonds, you've lost nothing, because the hand was unmakeable.

At the Table
It was clear at the table that Eszter hadn't made any sort of plan. At trick 3 she ruffed a Spade, a small Heart back to the King (West showing out) and another Spade ruffed with a small Heart. This now left Dummy with the AJ, Kxxx, Qx, and no way to get off Dummy without conceding a cheap Diamond trick. Even ruffing her 3rd Spade with the Jack would have been good enough, because now she can remove East's last trump with the Ace and cross back to hand in the trump suit to lead the Diamond.

The thing here was that Declarer can ruff her losing Spades any time. There's absolutely no rush to do it. Even if the Hearts are 2-0, Dummy will always have 3 trumps left to cater for your 2 losing Spades. The only issue on this hand is how to get rid of the 3rd Club in your hand before Opps can remove the Queen of Clubs in Dummy. There might be occasions when eliminating the Spades from both hands was important, but this clearly wasn't one of them.

5 X making would have been worth 8.2 IMPs. Because 4 wasn't making, 5 X -1 was worth -6 IMPs, a 14 IMP difference. Team Matches often turn on much smaller swings than that!

Make a plan! Concentrate on the essential features of the hand!

This wasn't bid by a Pair playing OCP, just regular Precision, The point isn't really about the bidding, more about the play if you get to 4 .