Vil Gravis's blog

This deal came from our local club’s AGM bridge session preceding the formalities. I thought other X-Clubs readers should find it of interest. We heard recently of the passing of John Wignall, one of our bridge icons. John earlier partnered the late Frank Lu for many years and Frank’s favourite phrase was “Slowly slowly catchee monkey”. We know what that means at the bridge table.

Here is a good example of how to get to the best possible end result the careful and slow way.
Dealer North NS Vul

	T5 AK8 KQT74 AJ6
Q9642 9532 963 8		KJ83 J76 852 QT2
	A7 QT4 AJ K97543

Here is an example of right and wrong defence from recent play. I hope that after the earlier chapters on opening leads this example will make total sense. Not that there is always a 100% sure line of defence evry time. Let’s see what happened when this deal was played some time ago.

Dealer East EW Vul

	Q743 J8754 A8 63
AKT2 KT3 T653 J8		J8 AQ92 KJ42 Q75
	965 6 Q97 AKT942

Welcome to my new series on DEFENCE. This is a continuation following on from the articles dealing with the “Rule of 11”, a good place to start when we are discussing defence.

Before we get into all aspects of defence, we need to work out a basic structure of how to play combinations of cards when we a) start the defence with the opening lead and b) continue the defence after the opening lead has been made and the beginnings of a plan formed by both defenders.

Declarer play is much easier if you follow the basic rules of counting the points, taking finesses where needed, and keeping a close eye on all the cards. And, of course, use all the cards to develop as many tricks as you can. A bit of understanding of your opponents also helps. This deal should have produced 11 tricks in No Trumps for every East irrespective of the bidding or the defence.

Board 7 from Wednesday 8/03/23
Dealer South All Vul

	QT6542 93 A5 Q65
J97 84 K9763 K73		AK3 AKQ7 842 AJ2
	8 JT652 QJT T984

Two basic rules in bridge play are: “second hand low” and “third hand high” and they are certainly good as far as they go. However they should not be followed blindly, because such rules are there to help with decisions, not become automatic. Another ‘rule’ that is closely tied in with the ‘rules’ for second and third hand play is the Rule of 11, which I explained earlier. Now let us take a look at the problems posed previously, and look at how the “Rule of 11” can be instrumental in your decision of which card to play as second or third hand.