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Ducking (continued to conclusion)We continue our analysis of ducking or hold-up play, both terms equating to 'declining to take a trick'. Hold-ups are effective, if dangerous, even in a trump contract. Consider the suit below which defenders have led against a contract of four spades
Against the king of hearts lead, declarer holds off the ace until the second round. Having subsequently drawn trumps, he may well be able to set up a side suit to throw away his losing heart, and can afford to lose a trick to East in the process. Some ducking situations are quite subtle.
The contract is four hearts against the queen of diamonds lead. Declarer has eight tricks on top and the remaining two can be developed from spades. Once trumps have broken 2:1, the king of hearts is a crucial entry. Can you see where declarer can go wrong ? Who has the king of diamonds ? If declarer takes the queen of diamonds on trick one, then when defenders are in with the ace of spades, a club lead through the K J could be fatal. It turns out that North has the ace of spades, so that's OK. But North will then lead a small diamond to South's king, who leads a small club to North's A Q. One down ! You can avoid this by ducking the first diamond. Then provided the ace of spades is with North, you can only lose one club. Even defenders can join in the ducking game. The most common scenario is when dummy has a long suit and no entries outside this suit.
It would be fatal here for West to play his ace before round three, as declarer would then have four tricks from this suit in dummy. Another situation that defenders should try to recognise is the 'forcing defence', where declarer is forced to ruff in her own hand until it gets out-of-control.
The contract is four spades, and East leads off three rounds of hearts, declarer trumping the third. Declarer then plays her trumps. If East takes her ace on trick one or two, she cannot profitably continue with hearts since they can be ruffed in dummy. Play the ace at trick three when dummy's spades have all gone, then continue with the hearts and declarer has insufficient trumps and goes one off (losing two hearts and two spades). One memory I treasure is defending this hand with Peter Morgan from Ely bridge club.
The contract is 2NT and I led the two of hearts. Declarer took the first trick and led back the jack of clubs. When this was run to Peter, his key play was to duck it. There is no way then that declarer can get to dummy to take the clubs as her other entries are covered by Peter's aces. As a consequence, declarer went one off losing one club, two diamonds, two hearts and one spade. See what happens if Peter takes the first club. Declarer makes ten tricks. When you are ready, have a look at these
practise hands which encompass concepts from all aspects of
declarer play. |
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