Defending 3NT

DEFENCE! Defence is VERY difficult. Too many things to keep track of and you have NO IDEA what Partner has! But we all have to defend at times. So it is best to get used to it. (Or bid more.)

Here is your hand:
♠KQT4
♥Q762
♦A3
♣854

The contract is 3NT. It is your lead. The auction went:

Dealer	YOU!	Responder	Partner
1♥	Pass	2♣	Pass
2♥	Pass	3♦	Pass
3NT	Pass	Pass	Pass

So what will you lead?

This auction SCREAMS for a ♠ lead (♠ is the only suit the opponents have not bid) and you have a nice ♠ holding to lead from.

From a holding of KQT4 you lead the King. Top of a sequence. In a sequence the third card down is allowed to skip by one pip.

So from KQJx you lead the King. A perfect three card sequence.

From KQTx you also lead the King. Here you SHOULD have the Jack but the Ten is different from the Jack by only one pip. (One spot, one card, one rank. However you want to say it.)

But from KQ9x you lead the x. Here the NINE is different from the Jack by TWO pips or two spots or two cards. So you are no longer allowed to lead the King in NT. (Trump is another story!)

So you lead the K♠.

Dummy comes down with:

	Dummy ♠73 ♥T ♦KQ986 ♣AKQ73
RHO ♠KQT4 ♥Q762 ♦A3 ♣854		RHO ???
	Declarer ???

Declarer plays small from Dummy. Partner plays a card and Declarer plays a card. You WON the trick!

At this point you might be thinking that you should maybe have paid attention to what the other people played. But you didn't. But they probably all followed suit. So it is now your play. What do you do?

You decide that it is a GOOD thing you won that trick so you continue with the Q♠. Now Declarer wins the A♠ and plays a low ♦ towards the Dummy.

You decide to play low. Declarer wins the K♦ and then plays the Q♦. You are now FORCED to win the A♦. What do you play now.

I would tell you what Partner played on the ♦ and on the ♠ but it wouldn't matter anyhow. You are not playing any signals whatsoever. So whatever cards Partner played do not help you right now.

So what do you play now???

You are down to this:

	Dummy ♠ ♥T ♦986 ♣AKQ73
RHO ♠T4 ♥Q762 ♦ ♣854		RHO ???
	Declarer ???

Show Answer

Now you need to play the T♠

If you played a ♠ that is good. You originally started with the ♠ suit and there is NO REASON to switch now. It is still your best suit.

At this point you have the ♠T4 left. With TWO cards in the suit play your HIGHEST card first. The T♠ is your highest card in the suit you are playing.

At the table this hand played the 4♠.

What's the difference?

The ♠ suit got blocked. Here is JUST the ♠ holding from the start:

	Dummy ♠73
LHO ♠KQT4		RHO ♠J9652
	Declarer ♠A8

When you started ♠ and continued ♠ the situation was now this:

	Dummy ♠-
LHO ♠T4		RHO ♠J96
	Declarer ♠

You were in with the A♦. At this point all you had to do was cash your three remaining ♠ winners.

If you played the T♠ Partner will not mess this up. They can always OVERTAKE your T♠ with their J♠ and run the rest of the ♠ OR they can play a low ♠ and let you win the T♠. Then you can continue with a low ♠ and Partner's ♠ are good. But when you play the 4♠ what is Partner to think? They can try playing the 9♠ BUT they look silly if Declarer has the T♠. All they had to do was win the J♠ and run the rest of the winners. If you played the 4♠, then Partner (rightly so) won the J♠ and returned a ♠. But the suit was now blocked. Partner had ♠ winners but no entry to get in with to play them.