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 3H after the following auction:

Dealer East
Both vul
S K J 2
H 9
D Q J 6
C J T 9 7 4 2
S A T 5
H T 4 3
D K 8 7
C A 8 6 3
[table marker]

WestNorthEastSouth
2D2H
3DPassPass3H
PassPassPass

You lead a diamond. Partner wins his ace and returns the C5, an obvious singleton, to declarer's king and your ace. Part I of your defensive problem, the easy part, comes next: you lead the C8, 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 H7 (declarer's CQ falling) and obediently returns the S9. 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 SQ, 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 HT 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
S K J 2
H 9
D Q J 6
C J T 9 7 4 2
S A T 5
H T 4 3
D K 8 7
C A 8 6 3
[table marker] S 9 7 3
H A J 7
D A 9 5 4 3 2
C 5
S Q 8 6 4
H K Q 8 6 5 2
D T
C K Q

If you listened to your partner and continued clubs again at trick 5, you get your trump promotion. Your HT and partner's HA add up to down 2 for 200 and a cold matchpoint top, beating the East-Wests who scored 110 in 3D, as well as those who let declarer take 8 tricks in hearts.

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This page last updated 03.02.10
©2009 Gordon Bower