"Holding up" is a well known and very valuable tactic in No Trump Contracts and its usefulness in breaking communications between the defenders' hands cannot be underestimated. However, there are occasions when it is definitely
not right to hold up, even once. Take this hand. You are Declarer in a 3NT Contract. The bidding doesn't matter but it was an OCP sequence 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1NT - 3NT)
South (Dummy) A108
85
Q10852
J96
North (You) K42
A64
AK
KQ1075
East leads the
7. You try the 8 from Dummy and East plays the Queen. Eszter, who was declaring this hand, ducked this trick which was a potentially fatal mistake, for two reasons, one greedy, but the other absolutely vital:
Firstly, there's no particular reason not to take the play to trick 1 at face value. If the Spade Honours are split, Dummy now has the
A10 sat over East's Jack, so holding up here just gives up a trick unnecessarily.
Secondly,
and this is the really vital point, you cannot
afford to hold up in Spades, because you cannot cope with a
Heart switch by West. Even if the Hearts are 4-4, you know you must lose a Club and 3 Hearts potentially. If you concede a Spade as well, that means you will only gain 8 tricks before Opps get 5.
At the table, West just unimaginatively carried on with a second Spade, even though they held only
Qx and had QJxxx in Hearts
and the Ace of Clubs. Eszter was able to clear the Clubs and ended up with 11 tricks, but a Heart switch at trick 2 leaves her inevitably 1 trick short.
If you are
more vulnerable in a different suit, but fairly well heeled in the suit Opps have initially led, then it is rarely a good idea to hold up, especially when, as here, you as Declarer can see 2 Spades, a heart, 3 Diamonds and 4 Club tricks are going to be your for 10 tricks if you don't hold up.
In practice, on this hand, West will come under considerable pressure on the run of the Clubs and might well discard a Diamond from
J9xx, which will allow you 12 tricks if you later take the Spade finesse as well. There is a case for cashing the
AK to unblock the suit before starting on the Clubs, just in case East has the Club Ace
and the Jack of Spades is with West after all. That would make a discard of a Diamond improbable, but your 10 tricks are still 100% safe.
