Do you want to play or defend?
Bridge Column for October 21, 2005, Harvey Bernstein
Special To The Plain Dealer
Neither side vulnerable.  West deals.
                              North
                              S: 2          
                              H: 10 9 4        
                              D: 7 5 4     
                              C: A Q 9 7 5 4
            West                             East
            S: J 9 6                         S: Q 10 8 7 4 3
            H: A K 8 3                       H: 6 5        
            D: A J 9 6                       D: Q 10 3            
            C: 8 6                           C: J 10        
                              South                         
                              S: A K 5
                              H: Q J 7 2    
                              D: K 8 2     
                              C: K 3 2    
          The Bidding:  
                   West   North     East   South                  
                    1D     Pass      1S     1NT 
                   Pass    3C       Pass    3NT 
                   Pass    Pass     Pass
     Thanks to Krishnamurthi Subramania of Naperville, IL for
this interesting deal from a local duplicate game.  Known as
Krish, he has a daughter who lives in the Cleveland area and he
plays at local games when he is visiting.
     South's one no trump bid was a standard no trump overcall. 
North's three club bid was invitational.  This is a conventional
bid that asks the no trump bidder to go to the no trump game if
he has one of the top three club honors.  If he does not have one
of those cards he should pass and allow partner to play the club
partial. 
     West led the jack of spades and everyone, including the
declarer, ducked.  The game could not be defeated after that
play.  South won the second spade and led a heart to the ten. 
West won the ace and led his last spade.  South won and led
another small heart.  West won again and cashed the ace of
diamonds for the last defensive trick.
     The question is, can this contract be defeated?  What if, at
trick one, East plays the queen of spades?  Declarer cannot duck
because a shift to the queen of diamonds finishes him, so he wins
and leads a heart in an attempt to establish his ninth trick. 
West wins and leads the nine of spades.  East covers with the ten
and once again, South must win.
     At this point, South can run six club tricks but all West
has to do is keep the ace of diamonds, the ace of hearts and the
six of spades.  As long as East keeps his one spade higher than
the six and another spade, the defense will score two hearts, a
diamond, and two spades.
     This begs a second question:  How is East to know that it is
correct to cover the jack of spades with the queen and switch to
a diamond if that holds the first trick?  Well, he can't be 100%
sure, but the lead indicates that South holds the ace and the
king - he is looking at the ten - and West did open the bidding
with a one diamond call.  That should certainly be enough to
"open his mind" to the potential of a winning defense.  Having a
poor hand is no reason to take a nap during the play.  

     The Cleveland Whist Club, Unit 125 of the American Contract
Bridge League, is holding a special Master/Future Master
duplicate bridge game this Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. at St.
Michaels, Woodside, 6026 E. Mill Road, Broadview Heights. 
     This very popular semi-annual event pairs up life master
bridge players with players who have not yet reached that
designation.  If you would like to make a reservation or request
partnership assistance, call (330) 722-8214. 

_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon. 
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com