Dead Clever

15^th August – Board 5: North/South Game. Dealer North.

There is a lot more to defence than sometimes meets the eye and the hand below was a case in point. What maybe looked simple in reality merited a great deal of thought.

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

West	North	East	South
	No	1NT	End

South might wade in with a 2H overcall – more of that later – but let us suppose he doesn’t. South will lead the ten of hearts and North will win with the queen. When he next cashes the king and the jack appears from declarer the heart position is obvious to South and he should play the nine to show interest in spades – a McKenney signal of sorts. Furthermore on the eight he should play the seven and on the five he should play the four, deliberately blocking the suit and forcing partner to switch to a spade. With the position as it is in that suit declarer will suffer a three trick defeat. If South had needed a diamond switch he would have played the seven under the eight and the three under the five. So those who defend properly get +150 while those who overcall in hearts will score +140, with four top losers. So in teams it matters not one jot while in pairs it makes all the difference between a top and a bottom. 

Strong Tens

11th July – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Defending is hard at the best of times but one of the best innovations in recent years is the concept of ‘strong ten’ and ‘weak jack’ leads. Basically this means that whenever a jack is led that will be the highest card in the sequence, i.e. J108(x) and whenever a ten is led there will be at least one higher honour. So you might have something like AJ108 or KJ108 when previously the normal lead would be the jack in both cases. Or again you might have A1098 or K1098 when you again lead the ten but now you are showing a strong sequence. This arrangement would have been useful on the following deal:

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

Suppose you are declaring 3NT from the North hand. East might lead a heart in which case the contract would easily fail, but a more likely lead perhaps is a diamond. However playing ‘strong tens’ the lead should be the nine NOT the ten and now when West gains the lead early he knows that there is no future in the diamond suit and can easily find the heart switch. If East had started with AJ109 of diamonds, say, or even A1098, then West would know from the lead of the ten that he should continue the suit.