JULIAN POTTAGE on DEFENCE West North East South 1NT 1 Pass 2♥2 Pass 2♠ Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠ End 1 12-14 Switches 2 Transfer to spades West leads the ace of diamonds and, when you encourage with the nine, continues with the king and a low diamond. South, who had started with n the last issue you may recall that The fact that you have used your ace J-x-x of the suit, follows three times. we discussed why the defenders often other than to capture dummy’s king With 19 points between your hand Ipersevere with the suit they led at makes your singleton obvious to the and dummy, and South with 12-14, West trick one. Now we will see some reasons other two players. What you would like must have 7-9. Since you have already for switching suits. to do is to put partner in before trumps seen the ace and king of diamonds (7 The best excuse for opening up a new are drawn, and hope to dummy’s points), partner can have at most a jack suit is that you have run out of the suit king of clubs. With the ace of hearts or queen left. This means that you originally led. visible in dummy, you know that cannot score a fourth trick quickly, so switching to heart will not achieve the you want to bide your time and give objective of getting partner in quickly, nothing away. ♠ A Q J 3 so you should lead a small diamond. The riskiest lead is a heart. If the ♥ A8 The full deal may look like this: success of the contract depends on it, ♦ K 10 7 5 declarer will let a heart run round to ♣ K 8 7 dummy and the queen will score. ♠ 7 6 5 ♠ A Q J 3 A club is almost as bad. Whilst it ♥ J 9 6 5 2 ♥ A8 might give nothing away if West has the N ♦ ♦ W E J 9 6 3 K 10 7 5 queen, the odds are that South has more S ♣ A ♣ K 8 7 than 12 points (in order to accept the ♠ 8 ♠ 7 6 5 game invitation), so is likely to hold the ♥ Q 7 4 N ♥ J 9 6 5 2 queen of clubs. In this case, a club lead W E West North East South ♦ A 8 4 2 S ♦ J 9 6 3 round to the jack allows declarer to 1♦ Pass 1♠ ♣ Q J 10 5 4 ♣ A make three club tricks: the jack now Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠ ♠ K 10 9 4 2 and, by means of a , the ace and End ♥ K 10 3 queen later. ♦ Q A is the safe exit. Even if West Partner, West, leads the queen of clubs, ♣ 9 6 3 2 unexpectedly has Q-x, your opponent and declarer plays low from dummy. could always pick up the suit either by You win faultlessly with your ace. What playing for the drop or by taking the do you return? Partner can capture the queen of finesse. diamonds with the ace and revert to This is the full deal: clubs, probably leading the jack. If HALLMARKED dummy plays low, you will discard and wait to ruff the third round. In practice ♠ A K J 7 5 3 PENCILS declarer calls for the king, so you ruff. ♥ Q 8 Having scored your ruff, you passively ♦ 10 7 3 exit with a trump and hope your opponent ♣ J 8 must concede a club at the end. ♠ 6 ♠ 8 2 Let us see another example on which ♥ J 9 6 3 N ♥ K 10 5 4 2 W E you have no choice but to change suit: ♦ A K 6 4 S ♦ Q 9 2 ♣ 9 7 5 2 ♣ K 10 4 ♠ Q 10 9 4 ♠ A K J 7 5 3 ♥ A7 ♥ Q 8 ♦ J 8 5 ♦ 10 7 3 ♣ A Q 6 3 ♣ J 8 Boxed set of four in Silver £125 ♠ 8 2 also available in 9ct or 18ct gold. ♥ K 10 5 4 2 After your passive trump return, N ♦ Mail Order Service. W E Q 9 2 declarer has only nine tricks: six trumps, See centre pages. S ♣ K 10 4 two clubs and a heart. Continued on page 28 ❿

Page 27 POTTAGE ON DEFENCE continued from page 27 MODERN When the Dummy After the diamond lead through the ace- is on Your Right . . . queen, your opponent cannot avoid AMERICAN losing two spades, a diamond and a trump. If you mistakenly continued BIDDING ♠ K 9 3 spades or tried a club, declarer would be ♥ A 10 3 able to discard the queen of diamonds ♦ 8 2 on a black winner, and so avoid losing a ♣ K Q 10 8 3 diamond. If partner had the ace of clubs ♠ A Q J 10 5 (instead of the jack of hearts) and the ♥ Q 6 king of diamonds, the diamond switch N ♦ W E J 10 7 4 would produce a similarly useful result: S ♣ 9 5 setting up a fourth defensive winner.

Swap Places West North East South with Partner Pass 1♥ Eric Kokish and Beverly Kraft – two of the ♣ ♠ ♣ world’s leading bidding theoreticians, writers, Pass 2 2 3 The time has come to move to the West teachers and International coaches, with Pass 4♥ End chair: impressive playing credentials – present a cohesive system with treatments aimed at West leads the six of spades and your ten improving constructive ♠ bidding. As well as demonstrating the correct wins the first trick. You could continue 10 2 application of partnership agreements, the spades – but would it be wise? ♥ 8 4 deals focus on important aspects of expert To continue with ace and another ♦ K Q J 8 7 5 evaluation and judgement. spade would be ill advised. The bidding ♣ K Q 10 The program consists of 200 prepared deals, suggests that South has five hearts and ♠ 9 8 3 which the user bids as South. The bids selected four clubs, so is far more likely to hold ♥ K Q 10 9 7 are evaluated and commented upon; if your two spades than three. Even if partner ♦ A3 N PC has a sound card and speakers you can hear W E ♣ S the explanations of the presenters; otherwise, could ruff the third round of spades, it J 9 4 they are shown as text on the . After the might be at the cost of a trump trick. bidding, you may play the hand. The usual rule, especially when you can The software, which is aimed at ambitious see dummy on your right, is to lead up West North East South players hoping to hone their game, is supported to known weakness. You have not been 1♦ Pass 1♠ with a system summary and a user manual. able to apply that on the previous hands Pass 2♦ Pass 3NT because dummy had no obviously weak End TOPICS COVERED suit. Here it does: diamonds. Minor suits facing balanced openers A switch to the jack of diamonds As the opening leader, you cannot see Smolen could beat the contract in a variety of either weakness or tenace holdings on Jacoby transfers ways. For one thing, West may produce your right, and you often need to rely on Texas transfers the ace and queen of diamonds. Then, signals from partner and/or logical Inverted minor raises unless South holds a singleton, you will powers of deduction. Developments after two-over-one responses be able to score the first four tricks with Here you lead the king of hearts. This Semi-forcing 1NT responses two spades and two diamonds. The wins the trick but East follows with the Third- and fourth-suit auctions diamond switch should also work well two – clearly a discouraging card. if West has the king, the full deal being: You place South with both the ace and Controls and long-suit responses to 2 jack of hearts, making a continuation Improved continuations after opener’s balanced rebids futile. You want to put partner in to lead a ♠ K 9 3 heart before your ace of diamonds Bidding after a ♥ A 10 3 is knocked out. Which black suit Improved Drury continuations ♦ 8 2 should you lead? ♣ K Q 10 8 3 Since declarer has bid spades, and £79.95 ♠ 7 6 4 ♠ A Q J 10 5 presumably holds strength in the suit, it inclusive of postage & packing ♥ J 8 4 N ♥ Q 6 may seem natural to try a club, but logic ♦ W E ♦ K 9 6 5 3 S J 10 7 4 actually points the other way. To jump By Swift Air to the US ♣ J 6 ♣ 9 5 to 3NT your opponent surely has some US$129.95 ♠ 8 2 sort of stopper in both the unbid suits, ♥ K 9 7 5 2 hearts and clubs. Between your hand from the Mail Order Service ♦ AQ and dummy, you can see all the clubs ♣ System Requirements: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, CD-ROM A 7 4 2 down to the nine except for the ace. Continued on page 29 ❿

Page 28 POTTAGE ON DEFENCE continued from page 28 One Last Example

At both suit and no-trump contracts, This makes it a near certainty that the ace should you lead to the next trick? you may wish to switch if you can see of clubs lies on your right. Accordingly, With a doubleton diamond, you would that the has not hit you should switch to a spade – either normally expect partner to play high- declarer’s weak spot. Please move back the eight or nine will get across that you low. The actual choice to play upwards to the East seat for our final example. do not want a spade back. therefore implies a three-card holding. The full deal may look like this: If you play a third round, declarer can probably ruff in one hand and throw a ♠ K J 10 3 loser from the other – not something ♥ AK 3 ♠ 10 2 you wish to facilitate. A trump lead ♦ 9 6 2 ♥ 8 4 can hardly help, and might catch East ♣ 9 3 2 ♦ K Q J 8 7 5 with Q-x-x, so which other suit do you ♠ AQ ♣ K Q 10 try? Dummy’s hearts are shorter and ♥ 8 7 6 5 ♠ ♠ N ♦ 9 8 3 AQ 6 weaker than its clubs, so there is W E Q J 10 ♥ K Q 10 9 7 N ♥ 6 3 2 less chance that declarer can throw S ♣ Q J 10 5 W E ♦ A3 S ♦ 10 4 2 clubs on hearts than the other way ♣ J 9 4 ♣ 7 6 5 3 round. In any event, if partner has a ♠ K J 7 5 4 club winner, it will be a slow one and South opens a weak no-trump, and then ♥ AJ 5 whether you lead the suit now is almost proceeds to game when North makes an ♦ 9 6 certainly immaterial. invitational raise with 2NT. West leads ♣ A8 2 The lead that stands out is the ten of the seven of spades and you capture hearts. This cannot give anything away dummy’s jack with your queen. and, on a good day, you will find Returning a spade will only serve to In a suit contract, you will often want to partner with the ace and queen. Indeed, set up dummy’s suit, so undoubtedly you try a different suit if declarer or dummy as we will discuss in a future article, the wish to direct your attack elsewhere. has run out of your first suit and still has nine of diamonds may well be a This time dummy contains not one weak trumps left. This advice holds particularly for hearts, making this layout quite suit but two, so which do you try? true if both opponents have run out of plausible. Remember, when you are the opening the suit. This is the full deal: leader against a no-trump contract, you often lead your longest suit, and you have reached an equivalent position here. If ♠ 9 8 6 5 ♠ 9 8 6 5 you had been on lead at trick one, you ♥ K J 7 ♥ K J 7 would have led the queen of clubs. There ♦ 10 6 ♦ 10 6 is nothing in dummy to suggest that a ♣ A K 8 2 ♣ A K 8 2 diamond will work better, so a club it ♠ 4 ♠ 4 ♠ 10 7 should be. Another way to reach the same ♥ 10 9 8 2 ♥ 10 9 8 2 N ♥ A Q 6 4 conclusion is to reflect on the fact that ♦ N ♦ W E ♦ A K Q J 8 3 W E A K Q J 8 3 S 9 4 2 even if West has the king of diamonds ♣ 10 9 S ♣ 10 9 ♣ 7 6 4 3 and you lead a diamond now, then you ♠ A K Q J 3 2 are likely to score two spades and only ♥ 5 3 two diamonds – not enough to defeat the West North East South ♦ 7 5 contract. If, however, you lead a club and 1♠ ♣ Q J 5 find West with the king, you may set up 2♦ 3♠ Pass 4♠ three club tricks, which will be enough. End The full deal is illustrated below. Given half the chance, declarer can You lead the ace of diamonds, and rattle off ten tricks, which makes it continue with the jack. Partner plays the essential for the defenders to take all ♠ K J 10 3 two and then the nine on these. What their winners quickly. ♥ AK 3 ♦ 9 6 2 ♣ 9 3 2 ♠ 9 7 5 4 ♠ AQ SUPERSCORER 95 ♥ 10 4 N ♥ 8 7 6 5 £52 W E ♦ 7 5 4 3 ♦ Q J 10 Duplicate Program for inc p&p S Windows 95 or later ♣ K 7 4 ♣ Q J 10 5 ♠ 8 6 2 Single or multi section/session Any movement scored Enter names using initials ♥ Q J 9 2 Prints Master-points Uploads Sim Pairs results Creates HTML files ♦ AK 8 ♣ From the Mail Order Service A8 6

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