Goren on Bridge

Many a successful defense depends on complete trust between partners. This is usually a hallmark of expert defenders. Non-expert defenders, however, are frequently seen making a play “just in case” partner has done the wrong thing. It seems safe to them at the time, but it sometimes results in letting a contract succeed that might have been defeated.

East won the opening heart lead and saw right away that a heart ruff was the only way to defeat the contract. Even if the defense could cash two club tricks, they couldn’t succeed unless they also got a heart ruff, and two heart ruffs might be necessary. East returned the two of hearts at trick two as a suit-preference signal for clubs, the lowest ranking side suit. West ruffed the heart and had to decide what to do next. He recognized the two of hearts as a suit-preference signal for clubs, but what should he do about it? Did partner have a singleton club and want a club ruff? Partner might also have a doubleton king of clubs and West’s play right now might not be important.

An expert West would fire back the two of clubs, confident that partner held the king, and defeat the contract with another heart ruff. A non-expert might cash the ace of clubs first, “just in case” partner had a singleton club. That play would allow the contract to come home. An expert would assume that partner would only be signaling an immediate entry and would probably have shifted to a singleton club at trick two if he had a singleton. A non-expert would not have been so sure. How about you?