Alert Defense

To the Editor:

The following deal appeared in Andy Robson’s column in Country Life magazine. Andy complimented declarer for playing “with pinpoint accuracy,” but he failed to point out that the defense had an interesting counter.

West led the spade ten. Declarer won with his queen and led a spade to dummy to take the diamond finesse. When it succeeded, he drew the last trump and cashed the diamond ace. He now led a heart to dummy. East ducked perforce. Declarer ruffed a diamond and led a second heart. East ducked again. Declarer ruffed the last diamond. West was now out of red cards, so declarer played ace and a club. West had to concede a trick to the club queen, allowing declarer to pitch his last heart.

Nicely done, but an alert defense could have prevailed. When declarer cashed the third round of spades, the defense should have required declarer to play a card from dummy.

Phillip Martin

Scarsdale, NY

Reprinted by permission of The Bridge World.

© 2000 by Bridge World Magazine Inc.