Hand of the Week, Vol. 3 No. 3

This deal is a defensive problem from the Wednesday afternoon pairs game at Anchorage's Cabin Fever Sectional. You are West, and are defending 3 after the following auction:

Dealer East Both vul	K J 2 9 Q J 6 J T 9 7 4 2
A T 5 T 4 3 K 8 7 A 8 6 3

West	North	East	South
		2	2
3	Pass	Pass	3
Pass	Pass	Pass

You lead a diamond. Partner wins his ace and returns the 5, an obvious singleton, to declarer's king and your ace. Part I of your defensive problem, the easy part, comes next: you lead the 8, not a small club, for partner to ruff, so he knows that you want a spade back.

So far so good. Partner trumps the club with the 7 (declarer's Q falling) and obediently returns the 9. Now what?

Partner opened a vulnerable weak two with only A9xxxx in diamonds. He should have at least one other face card somewhere or he wouldn't have an opening bid. If it's the Q, you need to return a spade through the king-jack. If it's the ace of trumps, he'll get it no matter what you do. There is one other rather remote possibility: if partner has two working cards in hearts, you can set up your T by leading another club, ruffed high by partner and overruffed higher by declarer.

It may look like you have to guess what to do. But your partner has given you a clue. If he held Qxx in spades, his normal return at trick 4 would have been a small spade, yet he led the nine instead. He has gone out of his way to say, "I don't have Qxx in spades, try something else."

Dealer East Both vul	K J 2 9 Q J 6 J T 9 7 4 2
A T 5 T 4 3 K 8 7 A 8 6 3		9 7 3 A J 7 A 9 5 4 3 2 5
	Q 8 6 4 K Q 8 6 5 2 T K Q

If you listened to your partner and continued clubs again at trick 5, you get your trump promotion. Your T and partner's A add up to down 2 for 200 and a cold matchpoint top, beating the East-Wests who scored 110 in 3, as well as those who let declarer take 8 tricks in hearts.

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