Well Considered

12th November – Board 6. East/West Game. Dealer East.

When defending you should make things as easy as possible for partner and give him as much information as possible.

	North: S Q J 10 8 5 H A Q 5 D K 8 3 C 9 7
West: S 6 4 H J 10 8 2 D Q 9 5 C Q 10 6 3		East: S 9 7 3 H 7 4 D A J 2 C A K 8 5 2
	South: S A K 2 H K 9 6 3 D 10 7 6 4 C J 4

West	North	East	South
		1NT	End

I suppose that North might bid 2S over the no-trump bid but the trouble is that South will feel constrained to join in the fun and any further move forward will not work out well. In any even 1NT should go two down although more often than not it didn’t. Suppose South leads the three of hearts - what card do you play from the North hand? I hope you chose the queen because you know from the lead – fourth highest – that partner has an honour and you are staring at the ace in hand and the jack and ten in dummy. So you know that partner has the king and what is more he knows that you have the ace because otherwise declarer would have won the trick! North switches – of course – to the spade queen and even if South does not overtake he can win the next two tricks and lead a heart to his partner’s known ace. In all the defence will take five spade tricks and three heart tricks for down two and a good score.