IMPROVE YOUR RANKING AT THE CLUB

When Dummy is on your Right

by Bernard Magee

When dummy is on your right, you should generally lead up to weakness, but bear in mind that your aim is for your partner to kill one of declarer's cards. This can still be achieved even if dummy holds a high card. For example:

A 7 6     10 9 8

Although dummy holds the A it is not unreasonable to hope that you can lead through an honour in declarer's hand, hoping to squash it against your partner's honour:

A 7 6     K J 3 2   10 9 8     Q 5 4

Once again, following the usual rule is a good thing to fall back on:

K Q 9   10 7 3   Q 9   K J 10 8 2     A   9 8 6 5 2   K 10 7 6   9 4 3

North	South
	1
2	2
4	End

North made a large overbid at his second turn, but can you make him pay for it? Your partner leads a trump to your ace, what next?

There are no real clues, but it is really only a choice between two options: clubs are out of the question. Your diamonds are stronger, but if your partner does not have the ace a lead away from the K would be expensive, allowing the queen to make. If your partner does have the
A, you will need another high card in his hand to defeat the contract, so you will have the chance to take your diamonds later anyway. The safest and best switch is a heart. The full deal is:

K Q 9   10 7 3   Q 9   K J 10 8 2     7 3 2   A Q 4   J 8 5 2   A 7 6   A   9 8 6 5 2   K 10 7 6   9 4 3     J 10 8 6 5 4   K J   A 4 3   Q 5

I gave some extended reasoning above but, put simply: if in doubt, when dummy is on your right, switch to the weak suit: a heart switch gives the defence four tricks, and a fifth can be established on a diamond continuation. Any other switch and declarer will be able to establish his clubs and the defence will be held to their three aces.

One thing to be very wary of is switching to a suit when you hold the honour directly above dummy's honour: by leading the suit you are denying your high card the opportunity to kill dummy's high card. The diamond suit in the deal above illustrates the point:

Q 9     J 8 5 2   K 10 7 6     A 4 3

If you lead the suit from your hand (East) you allow dummy's queen to score. Your king's job is to kill the queen. If your partner (West) leads the suit, your king can do its job and declarer only makes one trick.

How would you defend as East on the next deal?

K Q 9 4   10 7 5 3   J 8 4   J 8     A   J 9 8   K 9 7 6   9 7 6 4 3

North	South
	1
2	End

Once again, partner leads a trump and leaves you stuck on lead. There are three weakish suits in dummy so which one do you choose?

Hearts are the weakest, but the danger is that your jack ranks just above the ten, so a heart lead is best avoided. In diamonds, too, you have an honour sitting above a high card in dummy. In view of the dangers involved in both the red suits you should choose a club. The full deal is:

K Q 9 4   10 7 5 3   J 8 4   J 8     7 3 2   K 6 2   Q 3 2   A Q 10 2   A   J 9 8   K 9 7 6   9 7 6 4 3     J 10 8 6 5   A Q 4   A 10 5   K 5

Of course I have chosen a deal where the switch works perfectly, but note the dangers in the two red suits: a heart lead would allow declarer to duck and set up an extra trick in the suit, and a diamond would allow declarer to finesse against your king on the second round. Instead, your club lead allows partner to take two club tricks, and switch back to trumps. Declarer then has to work on the red suits himself, and cannot avoid losing three more tricks for one down.

Conclusion
One of the basic defensive tenets is 'Lead up to weakness' and it is one you should fall back on in times of doubt. However, be wary of switching to a suit in which you have an honour just above one in dummy.