BRIDGE NOTES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXV, Issue 18948, 6 August 1931, Page 3

BRIDGE NOTES.

(Ey William Shackle.) (Specially Written for “Timaru Herald.”) DEFENSIVE PLA/. Though one may hold poor hands, it is very often possible to play them so that an opponent's good cards are of little or no value to him, for the reason that he has been unable to obtain either game or even contract. It is therefore equally important to be able to play a defensive hand, as intelligently as one would play if one was declarer oneself. For this reason I propose giving the following points which should be treated as fundamentals of one’s play. Take for example the following. A, having called No Trump5.—Y.10.9.8.7.2, 8.K.6.5, Z.A.J.3, A.Q.4. Y naturally leads the 7 and in the usual way Z would play his Ace and return the Jack, clearing the suit for Y. If, however, A does not put on Dummy’s King, the suit will never be cleared by Z, as he has only the one card left. Thus in this instance Z should play his Jack first time and then if A has the Queen, YZ must take 4 in the suit, while if Y held the Queen, YZ would make all five cards tricks. (2) Holding Q.Jxx of a suit and seeing Kxx on one’s left, the correct lead is Q, for if partner has Ace, two tricks must be made , or if Q is passed three. Yet by the lead of a smaller one the King will make the second round, if partner is forced, as he would be, to play his Ace. The same applies to J.lOx against Qxx, etc. (3) It is most important to clear Dummy’s card for re-entry if he has an unusually long suit, such as the following: A xx, Y x, Dummy KQJxxxx plus Ace of another suit, a singleton, and no other possible trick. Z Axx. Directly Dummy goes down Y or Z at first opportunity should lead up to the singleton Ace in Dummy's hand a-s otherwise if A gets the lead he will make 6 tricks in Dummy’s long suit, even though Z holds up his Ace till the third round. (4) Against a No Trump bid it is very necessary to unblock your partner’s long suit if by the lead one can tell that one will have to take a trick in partner’s suit at one stage or another. Suppose he leads Q, having Kxx one should play K on partner’s Queen, for this reason, the Queen could only have been led from either AQ-J* (x) or QJlO.x (x), therefore by dropping the King it makes sure of partner making 3 or 4 tricks as the case may be, yet if one holds off it is more than probable that the Ace will not fall, with the result that before the suit can be established either one’s own or partner’s only card of re-enti'y may be used and no further opportunity will occur to establish that perfectly good long suit.