Tuesday, February 22, 2005 11:26 PM

Helping Partner

PITBULLS:

The opponents are in a 3NT contract and you have nothing to contribute to the defense. Is this a good time to have a nap and catch up on your needed rest ? Not a chance as partner probably needs your help in some way. The auction goes 2♣-P-2♦-P 2NT-P-3NT-P and partner leads the heart 5 . The board comes down with Jxxx K10x xxx 10xx and you have 109842 98x J8 xxx . OK start adding the HCP’s and you know partner is going to need your help . Give declarer 22 HCP and you and the dummy total 5 HCP. Partner is behind the big hand with an opening bid of 13 HCP ! End plays will be the order of the day in these kind of hands.

OK what meager contribution can you make to the defense ? At least you have a Smith echo to tell partner you like his opening lead. The only way you can possibly like his lead is if you have 3 hearts. Declarer played a small heart and won the queen. He cashes the spade Ace and you throw the spade deuce ( reverse Smith echo) saying you liked the heart lead. Spade King follows and partner discards a heart as you play the spade 10 which is a high card showing an original odd number of spades. Partner discards another heart on this spade. He knows you have 3 hearts so hearts are safe discards as declarer can never get to the board. Declarer leads a club toward the 10 and partner started with x AJxxx K10xx AJx and jumps up with jack and plays the heart Ace and exits with a low diamond. I play the jack and declarer wins the queen. Declarer now leads a low club towards the 10. Partner pounces with the Ace and returns a club and declarer is hand locked. He must play diamonds out of his hand with Axx and the defense gets two clubs , two diamonds and the heart Ace. Tough hand !

Sometimes partner does not defend as well as he should. A simple discard of a suit can keep partner on the right path. The opponents got to 6♠ and the board hit with AQxx xxx K109 KJx . You have xxx 105 Jxxx xxxx so is it time to leave partner on his own ? You lead a trump and declarer wins it in his hand and plays another spade partner discarding a small heart. Declarer draws the last trump and partner discards another heart. Declarer now places the club Ace and finesses the jack . Partner wins the club queen and exits a club with declarer discarding a diamond. Declarer now leads a heart and inserts the queen and you give correct count with the 5. Declarer now runs his last two trump . You discard your club on the first trump and partner discards a diamond . Declarer leads his last trump so what do you discard ? Declarer has 5 trump tricks , 2 club tricks , 2 diamond tricks so if he has the AQJ of hearts he has 12 tricks as the heart finesse is on. A little know application of patterns is counting declarers tricks ( 5-3-3-2 ) in this case. Your heart 10 is absolutely useless so discard it as a wakeup call to partner for the heart count for pseudo squeeze prevention. Partner should have the hand counted by now but additional help can not hurt. The formal expression for this play is “baby sitting” partner. You hold onto your heart and dozy partner has a wrong count of the hand and lets a heart go so –980 and –12 IMPS ! Partner’s defense was inexcusable but your “nothing” heart discard could have prevented him from going wrong.