Thursday, August 31, 2006 4:01 AM

Standard Defenses

PITBULLS:

There are some situations in Bridge that come up so often that the defense is “Standard” . The opponents are interfering with 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 and they have interfered with a fit and 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 better than cashing your tricks.

A Tormentee had ♠KQJxx ♥Kxxxxx ♦A ♣x and opened 1♥. The opponents overcalled 2NT and partner doubled showing the minors and most likely a misfit. Partner wants to double them at the 3 level. The opponents bid 3♦ and the Tormentee makes the correct bid of 3♠. You are vul and the opponents are not , so you would never leave the double in with a 6-5 in the majors so you bid in front of partner who most likely wants to double. However , the 2NT bidder had no fear and leaped to 5♦ which your partner doubles. You lead your trump Ace and the board is ♠xx ♥Q ♦K10xxx ♣AQJxx . Since partner says your side has the majority of HCP’s with her double , she is marked with one or both the major suit Aces. You see 25 HCP between your hand and the dummy so there is only 15 HCP left with partner holding at least 10 HCP. You switch to a heart and partner wins the Ace and continues with the queen of trump. When the smoke clears , you pick up +1100.

I played this hand today when my partner got a little exuberant on the auction. The Tormentee did not lead a trump so I escaped for –500. I got to ruff clubs with my 3 small diamonds and singleton club. The Tormentee was forced to overruff clubs with her trump Ace which in effect was a loser on loser. In these auctions, a trump lead is a 2 trump for one exchange which is a key in cross ruffing sistuations.