This was an informative hand that Eszter and I played today. Defence is never easy, but it really helps if you take note of
every card that's played and try to work things out from there: On this hand you are North. West opened a 2nd-in-hand 1NT and everyone passed. You are looking at
North
A63
J943
97
AQJ7
You choose to lead the
Queen (I think that would probably have been the
last card in my hand I would have chosen, but that's not the issue here). Dummy goes down:
East (Dummy) K542
108
J632
543
North A63
J943
97
A
QJ7
On trick 1 everyone ducks and Partner plays the encouraging
9. You continue with the 7, which runs to Partner's 10 and Declarer's King (ooops). Declarer now leads the
10 (You play low) and overtakes with Dummy's King and leads the Diamond Jack off the table. Partner rises up with the Ace and leads a 3rd round of Clubs. Declarer follows with the 8 and you take your two Club tricks. On the last Club Dummy sheds the
2, Partner the Heart 6 and Declarer the
2.
Now what?
East (Dummy) 542
108
53
-
North A6
J943
7
-
You've taken 4 tricks at this stage and Declarer only two. Partner's
6 is not encouraging a Heart switch, but it's difficult to read it as a clear suit preference signal for either Spades or Diamonds.
The play at trick 2 was a little curious: Partner's
9 is clearly suggesting an even number of Spades, but if Declarer has 4-card Spades including the QJ10, leading the 10 and overtaking with the King
solely to get to Dummy in order to lead the Jack of Diamonds would be a curious play. Clearly the Diamond suit is important to Declarer and it sounds like Declarer was missing the Ace
and the Queen, which Partner must have, so a Diamond switch should clearly be right off the menu. The choice, then, should be one of the Majors.
In practice it Doesn't matter which Major you choose. The main thing is
not to lead a Diamond. The full hand:
South J987
Q76
AQ8
1096
East (Dummy) West K542
Q10
108
AK52
J632
K1064
543
K82
North A63
J943
97
A
QJ7
Clearly Declarer would have done better to lead a small Diamond from hand at trick 3 rather than touching the Spades, but if you play the Ace of Spades at trick 7, the Queen falls and Partner takes 2 more Spades and then switches back to a Heart. If you lead a Heart, then Declarer has to put Partner in with the
Queen at some point and Partner (me) definitely would have switched back to Spades (I nearly switched to Spades at trick 4 rather than continuing Clubs, because I was suspicious of the
10 at trick 3 when Partner played the 3).
At the table Eszter led a Diamond and Declarer was easily able to wrap up 3 Diamonds to add to the Spade, Club and 2 Hearts. Maybe I should have encouraged Hearts with the 7 rather than playing the ambiguous
6 on Eszter's last Club (and riasking a Diamond from Eszter), but I can't afford to play either a Spade or a Diamond and I really want a Spade rather than anything else whether Declarer started with
Q10 or
A10, so I felt I had to hope Eszter could read the
6 and would realise that I had almost certainly started with
AQx and Declarer with
K10xx, because nothing else would explain using up Dummy's only possible entry just to lead the Jack of Diamonds.
Ho Hum...
