{"id":2551,"date":"2011-06-06T01:17:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T09:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=2551"},"modified":"2013-01-08T20:39:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T04:39:24","slug":"polling-you-67-bridge-defense-opening-leads-matter-%e2%80%93-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/?p=2551","title":{"rendered":"Polling You 67, Bridge Defense, Opening Leads Matter \u2013 Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this lesson, we focus on the opening lead when the opponents work their way into a 3 Notrump contract.\u00a0 As we\u2019ve seen earlier in our Incredible Defender series when playing against Notrump contracts, sound opening leads include top of sequence leads, top of inner-sequence leads, fourth best leads, leading partner\u2019s bid suit, etc.\u00a0 We also learned the importance of being a good communicator with partner, providing card signals to share information about like-dislike suit continuation attitude, suit count and even suit preference signals.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to view Part 1 of the video commentary<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Free Membership – Click here to view Part 2, hand #1 of our video commentary<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Premium\/ULTRA – Click here to view Part 3, hand 3 of our video commentary<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s combine these factors with another key factor \u2013 using our deductive skills to make inferences when making an opening lead.\u00a0 Focusing on the essentials, in this segment for each hand we will have the opener begin with a 1 Notrump contract.\u00a0 The responder will begin with either a 2 Club Stayman bid showing a 4 card major suit or make a Jacoby transfer bid to Spades (bidding 2 Hearts).\u00a0 After opener\u2019s rebid, the responder will make a 2 Notrump rebid with the opener denying a major suit fit but accepting a 3 Notrump game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inferences \u2013 In these classic bidding situations, both defenders know a great deal about the opponent\u2019s assets, both High Card Points and suit hand shape. <\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0The opener has a balanced hand with 16-17 points (accepting responder\u2019s invitational bid).<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0The responder has at least one 4 cards major suit when bidding Stayman, or a 5 card suit when making a Jacoby Transfer bid.\u00a0 And making an invitational 2 Notrump rebid, the responder has 8-9 points \u2013 just short the partnership 25 points to make a 3 Notrump contract.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Building on this information, both defenders are able to make their initial assessment of the declarer and dummy assets before the opening lead is tabled.\u00a0 Better yet, with a bit of basic detective work the defenders can make a sound initial assessment of their partner\u2019s remaining points and probable hand shape.\u00a0 As we will see, the opening leader can make good use of this information to make well-reasoned lead on trick one.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Polling You 67, Hand 1<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Board 3<\/em><\/strong>
\nSouth Deals
\nE-W Vul<\/td>\n		\u2660 K Q 7 6
\n\u2665<\/span> 10 7
\n\u2666<\/span> K 10 7
\n\u2663 J 10 9 7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2660 4 3
\n\u2665<\/span> A K J 4 2
\n\u2666<\/span> J 9 6 4
\n\u2663 6 2<\/td>\n		\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
N<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
W<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nE<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
S<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n\u2660 J 10 9 8 2
\n\u2665<\/span> 9 3
\n\u2666<\/span> 8 3 2
\n\u2663 A 8 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\u2660 A 5
\n\u2665<\/span> Q 8 6 5
\n\u2666<\/span> A Q 5
\n\u2663 K Q 5 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
West<\/em><\/td>\nNorth<\/em><\/td>\nEast<\/em><\/td>\nSouth<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1 N<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pass<\/td>\n2 \u2663<\/td>\nPass<\/td>\n2 \u2665<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pass<\/td>\n2 N<\/td>\nPass<\/td>\n3 N<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All pass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Trick<\/em><\/td>\nWest<\/em><\/td>\nNorth<\/em><\/td>\nEast<\/em><\/td>\nSouth<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1. W<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 4<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 10<\/span><\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 9<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2. N<\/td>\n\u2663 2<\/td>\n\u2663 7<\/td>\n\u2663 A<\/span><\/td>\n\u2663 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3. E<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> J<\/span><\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 7<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 3<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

South opens 1 Notrump with a strong balanced 17 High Card Point hand.\u00a0 While West would like to get into the action with a bid, it\u2019s usually better to defend with no more than a 5 card major suit and a poor 4 card side suit.\u00a0 After North\u2019s 2 Club Stayman call, South responds 2 Heart, North invites with 2 Notrump and 9 HCP.\u00a0 Without thought, South accepts the 3 Notrump contract.\u00a0 At this point, the opponents are aware South has 4 Hearts but not 4 Spades and a balanced 16-17 point hand.\u00a0 Also inferred from the bidding, North has 8-9 HCP and with 4 Spades (justified by the 2C Stayman major suit ask) and less than 4 Heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holding 9 HCP, West can deduce partner East has 4-5 HCP \u2013 hopefully a high honor to help promote West\u2019s Heart suit.\u00a0 Thus, West begins with the fourth-best Heart 4 hoping East holds the Queen and that neither opponent held a Queen doubleton. \u00a0Using the Rule of 11 to calculate the remaining holdings, 11 minus 4 (lead card) yields 7 remaining cards above the 4 in the remaining hands.\u00a0 Between North-South, declarer counts 6 cards above the 4, leaving 1 with East so declarer goes up with the Heart 10.\u00a0 East signals count, the Heart 9 show a high-low doubleton.\u00a0 Despite South\u2019s Heart 6 slight falsecard, West assumes the suit splits 5-4-2-2.\u00a0 With no opportunity to promote, finesse, endplay or squeeze the opponents, South tries promoting Clubs in hopes West holds the Ace.\u00a0 Unfortunately East holds the critical honor and dutifully returns the singleton Heart to West\u2019s\u00a0 Ace-King-Jack-2 over South\u2019s Queen-8-5, setting the declarer by 1 trick (four Heart and the Club Ace).\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: had West lead a high Heart here (without the 10), South can duck the Heart return and West must play a high Heart to avoid the dummy 10 from scoring a trick; now East lacks a Heart entry and the declarer can win 3 Spades, 3 Clubs, 3 Diamonds and 1 Heart for an overtrick.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Polling You 67, Hand 2<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Board 3<\/em><\/strong>
\nSouth Deals
\nE-W Vul<\/td>\n		\u2660 K Q 7 6
\n\u2665<\/span> 10 7
\n\u2666<\/span> K 10 7
\n\u2663 J 10 9 7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2660 4 3
\n\u2665<\/span> A K J 4 2
\n\u2666<\/span> J 9 6 4
\n\u2663 A 6<\/td>\n		\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
N<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
W<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\nE<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
S<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n\u2660 J 10 9 8 2
\n\u2665<\/span> 9 3
\n\u2666<\/span> 8 3 2
\n\u2663 8 3 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\u2660 A 5
\n\u2665<\/span> Q 8 6 5
\n\u2666<\/span> A Q 5
\n\u2663 K Q 5 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
West<\/em><\/td>\nNorth<\/em><\/td>\nEast<\/em><\/td>\nSouth<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n1 N<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pass<\/td>\n2 \u2663<\/td>\nPass<\/td>\n2 \u2665<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pass<\/td>\n2 N<\/td>\nPass<\/td>\n3 N<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All pass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Trick<\/em><\/td>\nWest<\/em><\/td>\nNorth<\/em><\/td>\nEast<\/em><\/td>\nSouth<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1. W<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 4<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 10<\/span><\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 9<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2. N<\/td>\n\u2663 A<\/span><\/td>\n\u2663 7<\/td>\n\u2663 2<\/td>\n\u2663 K<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3. W<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> A<\/span><\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 7<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 3<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4. W<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> K<\/span><\/td>\n\u2660 6<\/td>\n\u2666<\/span> 2<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5. W<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> 2<\/td>\n\u2663 9<\/td>\n\u2663 3<\/td>\n\u2665<\/span> Q<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

South opens 1 Notrump with a strong balanced 17 High Card Point hand.\u00a0 While West would like to get into the action with a bid, it\u2019s usually better to defend with no more than a 5 card major suit and a poor 4 card side suit.\u00a0 After North\u2019s 2 Club Stayman call, South responds 2 Heart, North invites with 2 Notrump and 9 HCP.\u00a0 Without thought, South accepts the 3 Notrump contract.\u00a0 At this point, the opponents are aware South has 4 Hearts but not 4 Spades and a balanced 16-17 point hand.\u00a0 Also inferred from the bidding, North has 8-9 HCP and with 4 Spades (justified by the 2C Stayman major suit ask) and less than 4 Heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holding 13 HCP, West can deduce partner East is limited to 1-2 HCP.\u00a0 West begins with the fourth-best Heart 4 hoping East holds the Queen and that neither opponent held a Queen doubleton.\u00a0 Using the Rule of 11 to calculate the remaining holdings, 11 minus 4 (lead card) yields 7 remaining cards above the 4 in the remaining hands.\u00a0 Between North-South, declarer counts 6 cards above the 4, leaving 1 with East so declarer goes up with the Heart 10 (failure to win the Heart 10 leads to contract failure).\u00a0 East signals count, the Heart 9 shows a high-low doubleton.\u00a0\u00a0 With no opportunity to promote, finesse, endplay or squeeze the opponents, South tries promoting Clubs in hopes West holds the Ace.\u00a0 Indeed, this time West holds the Ace.\u00a0 In desperation, West continues with the Heart Ace-King praying that East either misplayed the suit count or perhaps held a 4 card suit.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately, East held a doubleton so South\u2019s Queen wins over West\u2019s fourth Heart.\u00a0 So this time the declarer can win 3 Spades, 3 Clubs, 3 Diamonds and 1 Heart for an overtrick.\u00a0 Note: When East holds the Club Ace, the declarer can be set 1 trick since East has a critical winner and can return Heart to pin South\u2019s tenaces.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet on this hand, South must immediately go up with the Heart 10 to win the critical first trick \u2013 using the Rule of 11 here works great.\u00a0 Otherwise East wins the Heart 9, West wins all 5 Hearts and the Clubs Ace, setting the declarer 2 tricks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Happy Bridge Trails and Tales,<\/strong><\/p>\n

BridgeHands<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JavaScript needs to be enabled for polling to work. Online Surveys by Constant Contact.—— In this lesson, we focus on the opening lead when the opponents work their way into a 3 Notrump contract.\u00a0 As we\u2019ve seen earlier in our Incredible Defender series when playing against Notrump contracts, sound opening leads include top of sequence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2551"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2553,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgehands.com\/bridgeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}