Wednesday, May 28, 2003 12:40 AM

The Pause that Refreshes

PITBULLS:

This will be the last technical e-mail to the Pitbulls from yours truly . It may be the most important one to elevate your game to expert status . The subject is defense and declarer play but with bidding still lurking . You can not get away from bidding in declarer play and defense . At trick one as a defender or declarer , you must pause and get the “lie of the land” from the bidding. This is done by “translating” the bidding into patterns . This skill is a must if you are to defend or declare hands at the expert level. Quoting a coke commercial it is the pause that refreshes. When experts pause and plan their defense , they are getting the “lie of the land” . Its like studying the green in putting and knowing the slope , grass texture , beaks before you make a putt.

Mr. Jones gave a hand the other night that re-enforces this skill.

K	J	J	J
x	x	10	x
x	x	x	x
x

The auction goes 1♥ to your left and Peter Jones doubles . RHO bids 2♥ and you bid 2♠ with J10xx xxx Axxx xx . It goes 4♦ to your left and 4♥ ends the auction . The 4♦ bid was explained as a splinter in their methods . Jones leads a diamond and you win your Ace . Time to translate all the bidding information into patterns before you do anything else . You know declarer has 1♦ and probably 1 or 2 spades since partner made a takeout double . Your partner is known to have 5♦. Declarer is probably 2-5-1-5 as a tentative lie of the land with the bidding clues you have . O.K. knowing that declarer has a 5-3 club fit it is silly to attack clubs . If partner has a club trick and a trump trick or two club tricks and no trump tricks declarer is going down . Why ? Well if you continue diamonds , declarer is down to 4 trump . When partner gets in with the trump then she will be down to 3 trump the same length as you are. When she loses a club trick , she will be tapped out and when partner gets in with the spade Ace she is down . Translating the bidding into patterns allows you to beat a vul game. A club switch ( which is what happened ) leads you to –620 .

Mr. Kramers hand from the sectional also shows this concept but involves translating partners hand into a pattern at trick one.

K	K	K	A
	x	10	x
	x	9	x
		8
		x
		x

O.K. assume you leave the double of 3♠ in instead of pulling to 3NT . Remember the bidding went 1♦ , a spade overcall , 2♠ from partner and 3♠ from RHO . Partner doubles 3♠ and leads a spade . The dummy is below . Partner has 4 spades to the Ace as your king won . He choose to bid 2♠ showing diamond support instead of bidding NT . He probably has 5♦ . This gives him 5-4-3-1 or 5-4-2-2 . He did not lead a singleton so he us probably 5-4-2-2 . This allows you time to switch to a small club at trick 2. Partner gets in with the spade Ace and you give him a club ruff for +200 . This is an example of translating partners hand into a pattern which assists you in getting an idea of declarers hand . This is very common in defense . Since you know partners bidding methods , getting the lie of the land from his hand will help you find the correct defense time after time.

J	J	x	K
x	10		Q
x	x		J
	x		x
	x

Again the most important advice ever given to a bridge player. Think in

patterns and apply them !!!