Constructing a defense.
Bridge Column for January 10, 2003, Harvey Bernstein
Neither side vulnerable.  North deals.
                              North
                              S: 7 6 3            
                              H: A 10        
                              D: 6 5         
                              C: K 10 9 8 5 2
            West                             East
            S: Q 10 8                        S: J          
            H: J                             H: K 9 8 7 6 3 2 
            D: K 7 3 2                       D: Q J 10 9 8        
            C: Q J 7 6 4                     C: Void        
                              South                         
                              S: A K 9 5 4 2
                              H: Q 5 4      
                              D: A 4       
                              C: A 3      
          The Bidding:  
                  North    East    South    West                  
                   Pass     1H      1S      Pass
                    2S      3D      3S       4D 
                   Pass    Pass     4S      Pass
                   Pass    Pass
     In a duplicate bridge game, West opened the jack of hearts
against four spades.  Declarer is faced with a miserable decision
at trick one.  Is the jack a singleton or a doubleton?  Should he
win the ace or allow East to win the king?  If spades are evenly
divided, declarer should win the ace and draw two rounds of
trumps.  But the odds favor a 3-1 division, with West having
three from the bidding.  
     If that is the case, West is always going to be entitled to a trump trick.  If he trumps the heart return he will reduce his trump holding to only two spades and they will fall under the ace 
and king when declarer gets around to drawing the trump.  With this 
in mind, declarer plays the ten of hearts from the dummy and East 
wins the king.  
     At trick two, East returns the two of hearts.  South plays
low and West trumps with the eight of spades.  When you return a
card that you think your partner will trump, the relative size of
the card should point partner in the correct direction to
continue the defense.  In this case, the two of hearts is the
lowest heart, so East is asking for a club return.
     West obediently leads the queen of clubs.  Declarer plays
low from dummy.  East knows that South has the ace because if
West had it he would have cashed it first, so East trumps with
the jack of spades. 
     Now East has to make the right lead.  All he has is red
cards and he must rely on his partner to direct him.  The queen
of clubs should be asking for another heart.  There is also the
possibility that partner would have cashed the ace of diamonds
before leading a club, if he had that card.  Accordingly, a
middle heart is returned and West is able to trump higher than
any of the trumps in dummy.  Down one on perfect defense.
     Here is my tip based on todays hand:  Everytime you have the
chance to play a card, one of your cards is a better play than
any other.  This doesn't mean that there is always a perfect
play, but you should consider which of your options sends the
right message.  Eventually, your partner will realize that you
are not playing your cards thoughtlessly.  Partner will start to
recognize the value of your play and your results will improve.
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.