D19 DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES

1. OPTIONS

a. Suit Contracts

(i) High Card Establishment

Leading from touching honour combinations, partner's suit or the unbid suit

(ii) The Ruffing Game

Leading singletons and occasionally doubletons (or suits where partner is short)

(iii) The Forcing Game

Making declarer ruff in on your long suit to reduce his trump holding to worse than yours. For this to work, either you or your partner will probably need to hold 4 trumps.

(iv) A Trump Attack

Repeated trump leads to cut down dummy's ruffing potential

b. No Trump Contracts

(i) Long Suit Establishment

Leading your long suit, partner's bid suit or an unbid suit

(ii) The Passive Game

Leading cards which cannot give declarer any free tricks, e.g. leading from 3 small.

This defence is often recommended when there is a very strong hand on your right, after a 2NT opener, for instance, or in defending against a 6NT contract.

(iii) Attack on declarer's entries

You may see opportunities to duck tricks to disrupt declarer's entries or lead side suits to remove entries before declarer is ready to use them

2. DEFENSIVE SIGNALS AND DISCARDS

If you like your partner's lead play a high card, otherwise play a low one.

When following to declarer's or partner's suits, play high then low in the suit to show an even number of cards 2, 4 or 6. unless this information would assist declarer. Play the second highest from 4, e.g.the 8 from 10 8 6 2 followed by the 2 Play low then high with an odd number of cards, 3 or 5.

When discarding, a low card from that suit shows no particular interest. Playing a high card shows a wish for a switch to that suit or possession of significant honour(s). Obviously you don't throw away tricks by playing high cards willy nilly. Maybe small cards in the other suit(s) will give partner the message.

3. READING THE CARDS

Count declarer's points, as played. The bidding may then help to place high cards with partner.

Try to count declarer's hand shape, as play progresses, taking note of the original bidding. this may help you work out what is left in partner's hand.

4. DISCARDING ON LONG SUITS

(i) Keep stoppers in suits that you can actually see in dummy and in concealed suits that declarer has bid. Stoppers can emerge from apparently insignificant cards. For instance, 9 x x x may be a stopper if partner has, say J 10 doubleton. Declarer can then only run AKQ, promoting the 9. Keep 'long' cards in declarer's suits

(ii) If you see a K J x, K 10 x, A J 10 type of combination in dummy where declarer may be in doubt about the location of the Q, keep 3 cards in that suit to keep him guessing. If you discard several cards in this suit with gay abandon, declarer will play partner for the Queen.

5. GENERAL TIPS

(i) Try to make up your mind in advance what card you will play when declarer plays a suit from hand or dummy. Use the time declarer uses to plan his play. Ask yourself questions like;

Am I going to cover the ªJ with my ªQ?

If declarer plays a heart to the © KQ am I going to duck this trick once?

If declarer plays a small club from hand, am I going to rise immediately with the ace?

To pause with an honour, wondering whether to play it or not, may give the game away. Try to follow suit with a deliberate, even tempo.

(ii) Cover an honour with an honour whenever there is the remotest chance of promoting a trick for your side somewhere.

Cover the second of touching honours to protect partner's potential 10, 9 or whatever.

e.g. dummy, North, has Q J 9 3 and you, East, have, say K 6 5. Play low on the Q, but cover the J. If you cover the first honour, then partner's 10 can be finessed and you will make no tricks in this suit at all. Covering the second honour will promote partner's 10. And if partner never had the 10, in the first place, there was no defence anyway!

(iii) When partner leads a small card and dummy has no feature in that suit, play your highest card. 'Third hand plays high'. But when dummy has one or two honours, it is often correct to finesse against the dummy, particularly when defending No Trump contracts. e.g.

Contract 3NT;

If declarer plays the ©Q, cover with the ©K. If declarer plays the ©9, play the ©10

(iv) Where partner has a trick in a side suit and partner leads an honour, if you are void in that suit, it is usually wrong to trump in. You will be wasting a trump on one of declarer's losers

e.g. Contract 4ª, Partner West leads ©K

Since partner has 2 likely heart winners when he gets in, it would be unwise to ruff this trick.

(v) Don't overruff with a trump honour that was winning anyway. You may promote a second winner for your side e.g Declarer with AKJ105 ruffs in with the 10. When also void in this suit, don't overruff with Q932. Your trump holding is promoted to 2 tricks if you don't! Magic!

(vi) Be careful not to 'block' suits i.e. you get stuck on lead with no cards left to continue that suit. Don't be frightened to play your honours on the same trick as partner plays his.

e.g partner leads the ªK and you are holding ª A 5. If you play small on this trick, you will shortly be on lead with no option to continue spades! Overtake the ªK with the ªA and return a small one.

(vii) When returning partner's suit, lead your highest card left from on original 2 or 3 card holding but your original 4th best from 4 or 5 cards. This convention helps partner count the hand and avoids blockages later in the play.

(viii) If you decide to trump a side suit card played from dummy and you know that declarer is also void, trump with your highest card, You may promote partner's trump holding by forcing declarer to ruff high. (descriptively called the upper-cut!)