Defense … Choosing the card when returning partner’s suit
As we have discussed before, it is very important to return partner’s opening lead. However, the choice of which card to return is not always obvious. Let’s look at a hand.
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North |
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| West ♠ 10 5 3 ♥ K 10 7 6 2 ♦ K 8 3 ♣ Q J |
East ♠ Q 7 2 ♥ Q 8 5 3 ♦ 10 9 2 ♣ 10 9 6 |
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| South ♠J 9 8 ♥ A J 9 ♦ A Q 5 ♣ K 8 4 7 |
Let’s say the opponents wind up in 3 No Trump. Your partner opens the 6♥. You, of course, play the Q and Declarer wins with the A. Using the Rule of 11 ( you, of course, remember that rule from a previous article) … Right? … declarer can see that a hold-up will do him no good. Declarer plays the J♠ and plays low in Dummy so you win with the Q. What do you do next? Of course, you return your partners suit. Now, the card you play is very important. If you lead the 8, Declarer will play the 9 and partner will win with the 10. So partner now knows that the Declarer has the Jack. If you had the J, you would have played it. The question now is does the declarer have the J alone or does he have 2. If the J is alone, he can play his K and run all his hearts to set the contract. But, if the J is accompanied by a lower heart, he had to get back to you so you can lead another heart through South.
The key here is let your partner know how many you have, so he can figure out how many the declarer has. How do we do that? Since you originally held 4 Hearts, the proper play is to return the 3, not the 8. Declarer will still play the 9 and partner will still win with the 10, but partner now knows that you started with 4, so he can lay down the K and the J will fall. Whoever said Bridge was an easy game?
But, interestingly enough, there’s more here. So partner knows you started with 4, but how many did partner start with? If he started with 4 also, it doesn’t matter which of you has the lead … but if he has 5 and you have 4, you must play so that he gets his last heart.
Partner has played his 6, and then his 10, and will now play his K. What will you play? You have played the Q and the 3, so you have to choose which of the 8 or 5 you will play next. If you play the 5, partner will win with the 7, but then your 8 will be the highest Heart and you will not be able to get back to partner. You must play the 8 first on the K, so that you can return the 5 to Partner’s 7. Then he will win and be able to cash his last Heart the deuce. In this example it was important to play the correct Heart in every instance to achieve the maximum result.
Another interesting point in this example is how did partner know that you started with exactly 4 Hearts when you played the 3? If declarer had the 5 or the 8, he would have played it instead of the 9. Also it’s possible that you only had 2 Hearts. But, if that were the case, the declarer would have to hold 5 and he would have opened a Heart.
There are many clues that allow partner to read your return correctly. But, you must play the right card and pay attention to what your partner plays. Also, the bidding auction will reveal clues, if you’re alert enough to remember them.
