Thursday, August 31, 2006 4:01 AM
 
Hand Evaluation - Standard Defenses & Leads

 

PITBULLS:

 

            There are some situations in Bridge that come up so often that the defense is “Standard” . Recognizing these standard defensive situations is a basic hand evaluation skill.  The opponents are interfering via a Michaels Q bid or an unusual NT which is doubled by your side. This situation  calls for a standard defense. Another standard situation  is you “owning the hand” in a forcing pass sense , they have interfered with a fit so are doubled. In both these types of auctions, their only source of tricks is by ruffing as the hand is usually a misfit. In all these auctions , your lead should be a trump regardless of your hand. These are auctions where you should lead blind. A trump lead is even better than cashing your tricks.

 

           

            Another standard defense revolves around the fact that Bridge is played in a clockwise direction. The opponents have bid all 4 suits & end up in 3NT. If you have nothing in your hand to sway your opening lead decision,  you lead one of dummys’ suits. This is due to the simple reason that partner is behind those suits. I played with a partner who ignored this “standard” & led a club from ♣Qxx into declarers 2nd bid suit which happened to be AKJxxx . I only held AJ10x of dummys 2nd suit which would have beat the hand rather than -660.

 

            When the opponents partner is taking a preference  to one of openers suits , they are doing so for a reason . They are shorter in the other suit quite often. These auctions ( partials mainly) should trigger a trump lead because you know declarer line of play is to ruff his 2nd suit with the trump on the board. If you are long in declarers trump suit , do not lead shortness yourself as you are helping declarer regain control of the hand. Lead a long suit to make declarer ruff. Anticipate bad trump breaks. You have a singleton trump so pump declarer on behalf of partners assumed length. These concepts are defense standards. Another standard is too avoid “leading blind . The card gods have dealt you Ace & AK combination for a reason & that is to look at the board or partners signal. 

 

            Tapping the declarer is a standard defense. My partner had KJ109x along with values for a weak NT opener. I doubled the opponents for penalty in 2 after the board doubled the 1NT opener. Declarer most likely has zero HCP’s on the auction,  so the auction screams for you to lead your longest suit so to force declarer to lose control of the hand. Holding two hearts & partner doubling means they are getting a bad heart break.  Instead you make a “blind guess” that a club lead fromKxx was called for on this auction. You need a valid reason not to make the normal lead in a standard situation. Blindly guessing is not one of them L . They made 2X instead of -500 .

 

            Dummy locks & pumping the board are two standard defenses. Dummy locks are common when a big hand comes down as the dummy. You are attacking declarers entries thereby preventing her from getting to her hand. Hand locks are the reverse . You are holding up preventing entries to the dummy. Pumping the board is done in suit contracts to “kill the board” . This means you have longer trump than the board does , so declarer cannot establish a long suit , draw trump & get back to the long suit. Recognize the situations where automatic defenses apply. Your game will improve.