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As we previously discussed, being a good defender requires a variety of tactics to take all your tricks.   Top favorites include: making the right lead, third hand play, signaling on opponents leads, considering inferences, etc.

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In this session, some of the common themes we will use include:

Uppercuts – On a good day, occasionally when both the opponent (declarer or dummy) are void in a suit and our partner sitting behind the void player are also void, our partner has the option to either over-ruff or not when opponent plays high.  However, when the opponent plays a high honor, in some situations partner’s intermediate honor might be promoted.   Or perhaps when partner ruffs (declarer sluffs) or partner over-ruffs, our partner may be able to return a favorable lead back to us (finesse or ruff in another suit).

Unblocking – Just like when we are declarer and need to be careful leaving an entry to the other hand (promotion, future finesse play, ruff/cross-ruff, etc.), as defenders we should also be on the lookout to unblock partner’s suit.   Unblocking clues include the situation when partner leads the top of a sequence suit, Ace from Ace-King (or vice-versa for those who lead King from Ace-King), or an earlier suit preference signal by partner when you have few cards in the given suit.  Incidentally, when we return a shorter suit requested by partner (or not), we typically show count in the suit.  So with a doubleton we return the high card and with three we begin with a low card.   One notable exception is when we have a bust hand and should consider leading a Jack from a three card holding since we will no longer have an opportunity to gain the lead. Hopefully partner has “counted out the hand” in High Card Points and realize we may not have a doubleton, understanding we are trying to help partner pin an honor by our Left Hand Opponent.

Communication – Effective communication is paramount to mounting an effective defense.  Once we realize the importance of teamwork to gain the maximum number of tricks, we’re all ears (okay, eyes) watching partner’s signals.  Leads, attitude signals, length count signals, suit preference signals all provide important clues on how to play the hand.

Inferences – What is partner doing during play?  How about the declarer?  What happened during the bidding phase?  Did the opponents hesitate and if so, what inference should we make from the change in tempo?  How about our hand – how does that contribute to the evidence of what’s going on during play?   What have we learned when we saw the dummy?   After viewing the dummy and looking at our hand, what inferences can we make about partner and the declarer’s hand?  Inquiring minds are very busy pondering these and other questions on the opening lead, once the dummy comes down, third hand play, how the declarer plays the hand and more.
 
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