Contract Bridge

In the normal course of events, you are a defender half of the time and a declarer or dummy the other half of the time. It follows, therefore, that a player cannot expect to be successful without becoming a competent defender.

To defend well is not always easy, though; in fact, there are times when it is extraordinarily difficult. For example, take this deal where West got off on the right foot when he led the heart jack in an effort to find his partner’s long suit.

Declarer played low from dummy, losing to the king, and East returned a heart to dummy’s ace. South then attacked diamonds, forcing out East’s ace. East returned a heart to declarer’s queen, and South eventually made 10 tricks after losing a club to West’s ace. All told, South scored four diamonds, three clubs, two hearts and a spade, while the defenders scored only their two aces and the king of hearts.

The contract should have been defeated, however. East missed the opportunity for a fine play. He should have ducked the jack of hearts at trick one ( signaling instead with the nine). Had he done that, the defense would have collected three heart tricks as well as two aces.

East should assume that West has precisely J- 10- x of hearts. If that is West’s holding, taking the first trick with the king may prove fatal, since East needs the king as an entry to his hearts after the queen and ace are gone and he no longer has the ace of diamonds. When West later gains the lead with the ace of clubs, his heart return sinks the contract.

It may be argued that ducking the jack of hearts would be a losing play if declarer had only Q- x. This is true enough, but that argument is not sound because it credits West with J- 10- x- x — and with that holding, West would lead fourth- best initially rather than the jack.