Defence

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:
♠JT73
♥QT73
♦Q5
♣J74

The contract is 1NT. Your RHO opened the bidding 1NT and was allowed to play there. It is your lead. So what will you lead?

This hand lead a ♠. Technically if you are to lead a ♠ from this holding against NT, you should lead the 3♠. This hand lead the J♠. Not so bad as it turns out.

Dummy comes down with:

	Dummy ♠K5 ♥642 ♦J982 ♣A653
Us! ♠JT73 ♥QT73 ♦Q5 ♣J74		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. You didn't. But they probably all followed suit and you don't give signals to each other anyhow (too complicated!) so it wouldn't matter if you did pay attention. It is now your play. What do you do?

Show Answer

You SHOULD decide that it is a GOOD thing you won that trick and continue with a low ♠. Partner ducked their A♠ which was a good thing or Declarer would get two tricks from the suit rather than just one trick.

If you are allowed to win the Jack on the opening lead, chances are Partner has some higher cards in that suit. If Declarer had the Ace, King and Queen in that suit they might have won your Jack.