Saturday, February 05, 2005 1:31 AM

Passive Defense

PITBULLS:

Still another application of patterns is passive defense. We all know what passive leads are. You do not what to find cards for declarer so you make a lead that will not give up a trick. Passive defense is the same idea. You do not want to “break suits” for declarer as you might find cards for him or establish his suits for him. How do you know when passive defense is required ? Again it is using that handy tool called patterns and relating back to the bidding. If your defensive tricks are not going anywhere you stay passive and let declarer do the work . Here is Dora and I in action against Barry Pritchard.

QJ J109 Q10xx K10xx The auction went 1♣ by Barry and 1♦ by Faith ( her hand shown ) . Barry rebid 1♥ and Faith bid an invitational 3♣ bid in their system and Barry bid 3NT ending the auction. Dora led the spade deuce and the queen won on the board. Some partnerships play “Foster echos” when an honour wins on the board but Dora & I just play upside count when we can not beat an honour. I played the spade 8 on the spade queen and it won on the board. Barry played the heart jack and finessed and that won . He led the heart again and I covered with the King and Barry won in his hand with the Ace . He now leads a club towards the club King and Dora splits with her QJx and I win my Ace . I come back the spade 7 and Dora wins the King. Dora started with K1042 of spades so she applies patterns since I showed 3 that the spades are 4-4-3-2 with 4 in Barry’s hand. This gives her information to actually beat the hand. Barry bid hearts so he has 4♥ and he has shown up with 4♠ and had opened a club . This discovery gives Barry 2 diamonds at most and maybe even a singleton diamond ! Accordingly Dora returns a diamond and Barry tanks a long time and inserts the diamond 10 . I play the King and Barry the Ace . Barry leads a heart to his nine and that wins. Barry now leads the club 10 from the board . Do you win it or duck & why is he specifically leading the 10 ? Patterns to the rescue . Barry has 4 spades 4 hearts 2 diamonds and 3 clubs. If you win the club you give him a hand entry to all his good major suit cards. Dora ducks and wins the next club & Barry is “dummy locked” with the diamond return . We win 1 spade , 2 clubs and 2 diamonds for down one and Barry has to suffer the ignominy of discarding all his good tricks from his hand on our diamonds as Dora would not let him back to his hand. (OK the defense did go exactly like this but Dora forgot to duck the club L although she thought about it)

Playing with a tormentee here is a hand where passive defense is the order of the day and we got “busy” for no apparent reason . I opened a weak 2♦ and they got to 4♠ .

Q	J	A	9
10	x		x
9	x
8	x
x	x

I led a diamond and the Ace won on the board . Declarer led a spade to his King and played the diamond King and discarded a club . Declarer now leads a club to the 9 and I bounce with my King . You have xxx Q10x Jxx AQJ10 so its time for passive defense. Declarer’s heart losers are not going away anywhere . Certainly not on partners diamonds or your clubs so you play small . You can overtake and return a trump as that is passive. The tormentee did overtake and returned a heart ! Declarer had Kxx and just let it ride and my Ace “floated” . He just lost two heart tricks and made his contract. I bounced with my club king to flash my high card points so he would go wrong in the hearts and play my partner for the heart Ace. He loses 3 heart tricks by leading them himself and going wrong.

The last hand was Nancy and I in action . The auction went 1♦-P-1♥-P 2♣-P-P-P with Nancy & I remaining quiet through out . I made the automatic trump lead that the auction called for and the board came down

A	J	x	9
J	x	x	8
10	x		x
x	x

I lead a club and Nancy played her jack . Declarer won her club king and plays the spade King and another to the Ace. She now leads the spade jack and discards a heart as I win my queen . I return the trump queen and declarer wins her Ace. Declarer leads a trump and I win the 10 with Nancy following. The trump were 4-3-3-3 so they are drawn. I lead a heart to Nancy’s Ace . Nancy’s hand is now a small heart and AK10xx of diamonds. The dummy is dead so declarer will be playing the rest of the contract out of her hand. She opened a diamond so she has probably 5 diamonds left with her original pattern being 2-2-5-4. Do you play a high diamond ? Why ? as they are not going anywhere . Let declarer come to you . The way the diamond spots are situated we get 4 diamonds , two hearts ,and a club for the magic +200. Playing a high diamond honour gives declarer two diamond tricks and she wiggles out for –100. Exit passively with your last heart and let declarer play the diamonds without our assistance.

All these hands require the next step. After memorizing the patterns to actually apply them in actual defense. In this case passive defense so you defend with a purpose instead of just helping declarer. This “pattern application” needs constant practice but it will come . HW Kelsey said most defenders play in a “fog of uncertainty” . What he means is that they do not apply patterns . Application of patterns will never come though if you do not give it a try.