Bridge DO IT YOURSELF

It is easy for a player to convince himself that he is following his partner’s defense, and then blame it on partner when it goes wrong. An expert will figure it out for himself.

The opening club lead went to the six, three and jack. A heart to the king was won by East, who returned the nine of clubs for West to ruff. West saw that East must have another entry to defeat the contract, and that could be either the ace of spades or the king of diamonds. West knew that his partner had returned his highest club, the nine, and West decided that the nine was a suit-preference signal for spades. Accordingly, West shifted to a spade and declarer quickly drew trumps and claimed his contract, conceding a diamond to the defense.

When a defender makes his normal play, it is wrong to attach some special meaning to that play. Here, for example, how could East know which of his kings might be an entry. He had no intention of giving a suitpreference signal when he led the nine of clubs — it was just his normal play.

West should have reasoned this out for himself. It was possible to construct a hand for South that would justify a jump to game without the ace of spades. There were many more hands to construct where South had the ace of spades and not the king of diamonds. No guarantee, but we think the percentage play for West was to underlead his ace of diamonds, leading to down one on this deal and no blame for partner.

Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to With Tannah Hirsch and Bob Jones Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 We stgrove Dr., Suite 175 , Addison, TX 75001. E -mail tcaeditors@tribune.com.