Unit 214: Hattiesburg Duplicate Bridge

It is time to change from bidding to defense. The next several lessons will focus on different aspects of defense. We are on defense 50% of the time.It is the hardest part of the game. Let's get to work.

You are on lead against two hearts. What do you lead? This auction screams for a trump lead. Why? North is most assuredly short in spades. You want to keep declarer from being able to ruff spade losers in his/ her hand so that you get your natural spade tricks. 

You lead a heart. Declarer puts in the two and partner wins A and leads back jack . Declarer wins K hearts. Plays A spades and Ruffs a losing spade. Plays A and K of clubs and comes back to hand and ruffs. They ruff with 10 hearts and you Pitch 8 diamonds. That signals your partner to lead a diamond if they get in. Declarer draws your last trump and must either play towards K diamonds or play towards spades. Watching your pitch, declarer plays towards Q 10 of spades. You win K or jack and cash again then putting declarer back in hand with a spade. 

DO NOT cash your A of diamonds. You know Declarer has 5 spades and four hearts. Declarer had two clubs and then ruffed a club. Declarer has two diamonds. Putting declarer back in his hand assures you also get two diamond tricks. You held the declarer to two hearts. Any other lead allows declarer to get rid of spade losers keeping you from your natural spade tricks and lets declarer make an overtrick. 

You have 4 of the preemptive hand’s hearts. What does the two notrump bid mean? It asks the preemptive hand for a feature. This means that the declarer is short in hearts and wants an entry to dummy to make this three no trump contract. What do you want to lead? You know declarer will have trouble running hearts. Knock out the entry early!!!. Lead a spade.  Declarer will let it ride to his ace. Your partner has great spots in spades. Declarer leads towards his hearts on trick two.  Do you take your Ace then. No. Let him on the board. Take your ace on the second heart. Then put him on the board with the King of spades. He gets the bad news about the hearts on trick five and will abandon that suit for the clubs. Now your partner will take the ace of clubs and three spades.  

Let’s examine how each defendant handled their Aces. West had to hold up until the second trick to take the ace of hearts. West knows that hearts will not run. By leading spades, west knew he could knock out entry to dummy early on. East now is in a good position. He has to pitch a club on the third heart. He does not need to hold up on Ace of clubs. He has the contract set with his three spade tricks . DOWN 1 . 

 We have partnered with the city of Hattiesburg's Parks and Recreation Department to bring people together who love card games. We will introduce Bridge Wars as a way to entice people into the duplicate bridge world. 

This will be held from 6-8 pm on October 8th, November 12th and December 10th at the Sigler Center: 315 Conti Avenue, Hattiesburg, MS 39401