Friday,
August 04, 2006 1:37 PM
Defense
PITBULLS:
If
somebody asked me to define
defense in the game of Bridge , I would answer the application of hand
patterns. Initially , you translate
the bidding into a hand pattern based on the bidding before you make an opening
lead. During the hand , you apply hand patterns based on partner showing you
count which is done by translating leads or discards
into hand patterns. You also apply hand patterns based on who shows out of a suit. Finally from the hand
patterns , you are aware of how many tricks declarer has so you know where your
tricks are coming from to defeat
the contract.
If
I were a defense cop who had the authority to write tickets for defensive
violations , I would have given a tormentee 4
tickets the other night in one
hand for essentially not thinking “in patterns” . The auction went
(everybody vul) 3♣-X-P-P . You
doubled with ♠Qxxxx ♥AKxx
♦Axx
♣x so you are not unhappy with partners conversion as you have 3 defensive
tricks to contribute. The first ticket that gets written is for the opening
lead. It is horrible , especially in a doubled contract , to guess and just lead blind. I lead bare Aces in doubled
contracts so I can see the board. Luckily you have an AK combination to you do
not have to lead blind, so a heart
is your opening lead. Violation #1
the Tormentee lead her 4th best spade.
The
board hits with ♠AKJxx ♥xxxx
♦KJ10x
♣ void so you can see why partner converted. The club pattern is either 7-5-1-0
or 8-4-1-0 so partner has 5 or 4 clubs. For your horrific opening lead you
deserved to have AKJ of spades 3rd on the board and declarer a
singleton so she would finesse and pitch two of her hearts away. However, you are lucky as declarer let the spade
lead ride around to her 10. Ticket violation
#2 as you were too lazy to apply a pattern to the spade suit.
5-5-2-1 so declarer can not have a stiff spade as she can not get back to the
board. Therefore partner has the
stiff spade !
Partner
gets in with the Ace of trump and now switches to the heart queen so you
encourage. Partner switches to the diamond 8 so now what ? In Bridge if you
want a switch
continued , you lead a low card saying please continue as I have an honour.
Partner carefully chose the 8 saying please do not continue diamonds as I want
a spade ruff or a heart continuation. From hand patterns , you know that
declarer has 10 or 9 black cards ( 2 spades & 7 or 8 clubs ) so 10 of
declarer’s 13 cards are accounted
for. This next play is worth 2 tickets. In a doubled contract , where partner
is counting on you for your 3 defensive tricks and knowing that partner is getting a spade ruff , you duck the
setting trick ! You get this ticket ( #3)
for not reading partners 8 of diamonds which says diamonds are not to be
returned so we are just getting one diamond trick. You get a 4th
ticket for not being aware that
you need 5 tricks to defeat a 3 level contract and it is folly to play declarer
for 4 diamonds which is the only holding a duck would make sense.
Applying patterns is
Bridge defense. This is how you
think on defense. Everything in defense stems from patterns as the building block. You got a well deserved
–670 on this board instead of +200. Everybody in the field was in 3NT down one
so you were about to win 9 IMPS. Instead you lose 14 for a 23 IMP swing. Who
needs patterns anyway ? I probably have never mentioned them before L