ADVANCED DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES

Bridge Forum International

Approximately 50% of our time at bridge is spent on defense with the advantage declarer has of seeing all 26 of her side's cards and in control — most of the time — of directing the line of play. As well, partnerships often devote much energy discussing their system and bidding sequences, but are often left at the declarer's mercy when defending. Now is the time to take charge as a defender! By looking at five lines of defense, as outlined in Burt Hall's and Lynn-Rose Hall's How The Experts Win At Bridge, we focus on these "lines of defense" and "supporting tools of information."

    1. INTRODUCTION

In general the five lines are:

The five major "supporting tools" of information which will guide your decision as to which line of defense play to take include:

Inferences from bidding and/or play by the opponents

    1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO LINES OF DEFENSE:

1. Force Declarer to Lose Control (Forcing Defense)

Here, in essence, the goal is to get control of declarer's own trump suit. We shall return to the condition and examples of the force!

2. Active Defense

When a long side suit is breaking favorably for declarer, when the opponents have bid vigorously showing slam interest or there is a known long running suit (such as a preemptive bid by one opponent followed by a bid of 3NT by the other), we need to get active before our tricks are discarded on declarer's winners.

3. Passive Defense

The opposite approach to the above, passive defense, typically occurs when your tricks are safe. How do we know this? There are indeed indicators. There is no evidence from the opponents' bidding that there is a strong side suit for discarding losers. Declarer appears to be strong while dummy is weak; the bidding forewarns us of a misfit or by looking at your hand you see a bad split in key suits bid by your opponents; and, when defending 6NT and grand slams.

4. Cut Down Declarer's Ruffing Power

The conditions for this line of defensive strategy include what we hear from the bidding as partial to total misfits in suits bid by the opponents. The bidding suggests dummy's shortness in the suit which the opponent's are playing in (i.e. a 5-2 fit perhaps). Thirdly, you are strong in other suits thus controlling the opponents' side suits or if the opponent's are sacrificing, say in 4S, against your cold 4H game.

5. Creating Trump Tricks

Both ruffing out declarer's tricks and promoting trump tricks of your own are optimum defensive strategies when you can ruff declarer's tricks being short in an unbid suit and long in a suit bid and raised by the opponents or when you can promote trump tricks of your own.

    1. SUPPORTING TOOLS
    1. INFERENCES FROM THE AUCTION AND PLAY

As North you hear the following auction:

WEST

NORTH

EAST

SOUTH

1S

P

2C

P

3C

P

4S

All Pass

You hold S A7 H 98 D A853 C 10732

You infer from the bidding that East does NOT have four trumps or she would have bid Jacoby 2NT (showing 13 HCP+ and four card trump support for partner's major suit opening.) It seems likely that East has then three spades and four or five clubs. In order for West to raise clubs, she has four. Thus partner has either a void or singleton in clubs. You duly lead your C2 and declarer wins it with the CA. Now as soon as declarer leads trumps, you pop up with your SA and return the D3, asking partner when she ruffs the club, to return the LOWER RANKING of diamonds and hearts, here diamonds. Indeed partner ruffs your C3, returns a low diamond, you win the DA and return yet another club for partner to ruff. The contract is defeated because you have listened closely to the bidding and taken inference from what you have heard. You have rightfully deduced that South has 5 spades and 4 clubs. You have rightfully deduced that North has 3 spades and 4 or 5 clubs (in this case 4). Thus holding that gem of the SA, you know partner will get a club ruff, and she gets two, plus your SA and DA. Well done!

From partner's perspective, she has inferred from your lead of a club that you are aiming to give her ruff as you and partner have both taken inference from each other's play of hand, including the vital lead.

  1. COUNTING POINTS

Now as North you partake in the following bidding:

WEST

NORTH

EAST

SOUTH

1S

DBL

2N*

P

4S

ALL PASS

 

 

 

(Note that 2NT* over the double by North is conventional, showing a limit raise + with 3-4+ trump support).

You look at your own hand and see your 13 HCP and assume around 26 HCP for E-W to bid their game. What does that tell you about partner's HCPs? Maybe she has a Jack? Maybe two Jacks or one Queen? And indeed declarer has the same information you do so how does this guide you to know partner is so poor!?

You hold: S xx H KJ109 D AQ65 C K76

You will NOT make an aggressive lead; rather you will let declarer play to you. Thus you may even choose a trump lead, giving nothing away. You have made the first step in logically deducing how many HCPs partner can have and thus you choose your passive lead and set the tone for the defense.

  1. COUNTING DISTRIBUTION

As West you hear the following auction:

1S

2NT

3H

P

4S

 

 

 

(Note that 3H* is conventional, a cue bid of the KNOWN suit held by West, showing a limit raise or better in support of spades with 3 or 4+ trump. This is one way of defending against the UNUSUAL NOTRUMP bid. Some may play that bidding the known suits, hearts, shows the lower-ranking of the minors whilst bidding spades, showing spades. Make sure and discuss this with your partner!)

Ten of partner's cards are known, 5 hearts of 5 of a minor.

You hold: S K9543 H 1074 D 109875 C 9.

You start to count distribution and know that partner cannot have any spades as East-West have a 5-3 fit evidenced by your lovely 5 spades. So what can be left in partner's hand? It would seem that partner has 5 hearts, 5 clubs and 3 diamonds. That means the opponents have four diamonds between them and when partner leads the CA, you see three diamonds in dummy. Now you know that declarer has two diamonds and can account for 7 of declarer's 13 cards. Seeing two hearts in dummy, you know now declarer must have three, for you have 3 and partner has 5. Your count now grows to knowing declarer has 5 spades, 3 hearts, two diamonds and therefore must have 3 clubs. From this you have a full count on all hands at the table. This allows you to know how many club ruffs you can hope for upon partner's lead of the CA.

Partner does lead the CA and you can now play the D10 showing "equal values", the D9 and typically D8. Ruffing partner's third club, the C10, you now return a heart as this club seems to be partner's highest heart from a holding of say, C AKT42. Indeed partner wins the HA as you lead through declarer's C KJ9. (Here we see an example of defensive signaling, suit preference when leading a suit which you know partner will ruff.) Partner returns yet another club. Given the 5-3 club break between East-West, you and partner have now taken the CA, CK, a ruff on the C10, the HA while still holding the offside SK. Thus with your 4 HCPs, and partner's 11, leaving the opponents with their 26, you have set them by two tricks. Curious about all the hands? Let's take a peek:

VUL: N-S

NORTH

 

 

S QJ1086

 

 

H KJ9

 

 

D AK

 

 

C J83

 

WEST

 

EAST

S K9543

 

S VOID

H 1074

 

H A6532

D 109875

 

D 643

C 9

 

C AK1032

 

SOUTH

 

 

S A107

 

 

H Q108

 

 

D QJ2

 

 

C Q765

 

4.     COUNTING TRICKS

The bidding proceeds:

EAST

SOUTH

WEST

NORTH

P

1S

P

4S

All Pass

 

 

 

 

NORTH

 

 

S AJ943

 

 

H 97

 

 

D A106

 

 

C A52

 

WEST

 

EAST

S 75

 

S 6

H 104

 

H AKJ852

D Q983

 

D K74

C Q8642

 

C J109

 

SOUTH

 

 

S KQ1082

 

 

H Q63

 

 

D J52

 

 

C K7

 

The opening lead is the H10. East wins the HA and the HK and must now ask herself, "Where do we find two other tricks so we can defeat this contract?" It looks tempting to lead the CJ, does it not? However, an astute East sees the chances lie with the diamond suit. By leading a third heart which partner ruffs and is overruffed in dummy, declarer's QH is no longer available to be used as a discard on a diamond in dummy, thus allowing declarer to lose only two hearts and one diamond (for when the HQ is not ruffed out it will be used to discard a diamond.) Declarer can now win a diamond, give up one and ruff a third). While William Root, author of numerous books, including How To Defend A Bridge Hand, offers this hand as an example of KILLING DECLARER'S DISCARDS, and it also vividly highlights the vital question one must ask: "Where and how do we find those extra tricks so this contract is set?"

  1. DEFENSIVE SIGNALS

Defensive signals are indeed the way we communicate effectively with partner while defending. It constitutes a large part of the vocabulary of bridge.

The bidding proceeds:

SOUTH

WEST

NORTH

EAST

1D

1H

3D

P

3NT

All Pass

 

 

Your partner leads the HK and you see dummy and of course, your own hand, East.

 

DUMMY (NORTH)

 

 

S AQJ

 

 

H 32

 

 

D KQJ84

 

 

C 632

 

WEST

 

EAST

 

 

S 107642

H K led

 

H 984

 

 

D 5

 

 

C A1095

If you had three or more hearts headed by the Ace, Queen or Jack, you should give an encouraging signal. However, here you want to discourage as you can foresee, given you do not hold the SK, and even if partner does, declarer may win 3 spades, at least the HA (and perhaps a continuation of hearts is right into declarer's H AJx holding), and maybe five diamonds right off the top. NOW IS THE TIME TO GET ACTIVE AND TELL PARTNER TO MAKE A SWITCH TO ANOTHER SUIT! Your attitude signal here, the H4 is terrific as it clearly says NO! Your very clever partner leads a club, (although a low heart does not ask for suit preference because you cannot give both attitude and suit preference at once without losing that effective communication with partner). As it turns out, your partner does not hold the SK and does not lead a spade assuming that declarer would not bid 3NT without the SK. Here are all four hands:

 

NORTH

 

 

S AQJ

 

 

H 32

 

 

D KQJ84

 

 

C 643

 

WEST

 

EAST

S 953

 

S 107642

H KQ1065

 

H 984

D A6

 

D 5

C 874

 

C A1095

 

SOUTH

 

 

S K8

 

 

H AJ4

 

 

D 109732

 

 

C KQJ

 

 

You win partner's fortuitous switch with the CA and lead through the H9. The heart suit with now be established for West and when she gets in with the DA, she can now defeat the contract by running the rest of her hearts. Had it not been for the ATTITUDE SIGNAL, one of three major signals we use on defense — along with count and suit preference signals — declarer holds up on the HA, and upon West's continuation of the HQ, winning the DA useless. West no longer has a running heart suit.

SUMMARY

1. In keeping with the work done by Burt Hall and Lynn-Rose Hall in How The Experts Win At Bridge, we look at hands we play, with each defender giving his/her plan as to what line of defense seems most appropriate given the bidding. To summarize, we can categorize lines of play into the following categories:

2. Each of these lines of defense depends on "supporting tools of information":

HAPPY BRIDGINGJ

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