TTYL

Online bridge can be a very social event. Sometimes, I am chatting with friends while still trying to play. My advice? TTYL, which translates into:  Talk To Ya Later, as every chat enthusiast knows! Best to focus on one thing at a time.

Now that I have set up my excuse, pick up the East cards and defend this hand:

	North ♠  AQ5 ♥  AJ96 ♦  KJT72 ♣  A
		East ♠  JT3 ♥  KT54 ♦  98 ♣  QJ32

Dummy, North opened 1D, and raised his partner’s 1H response to just 3 (!). When South carried on to game, my partner led the 9 of Clubs. Declarer, perforce,  won the Ace, following with the Ten from his hand, and then played Ace and another Heart. Partner followed to the trump Ace with the Queen, and, on the second round of trumps, threw a conventional low, odd, club, indicating the Ace of Diamonds. You are in with the Ten. What is your plan? Decide before you read on…

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It looked to me like 4 easy tricks. My two high trumps, the Ace of Diamonds, and a Diamond ruff. I saw the hand as an exercise in trying to make sure partner would win the second round of Diamonds, and not the first. Easy! Just play a Diamond, and he will duck the first round. How does he know to do that? Because if you had a stiff Diamond, you would cash your (marked) King of trumps first, and then play the Diamond back to partner. Textbook stuff.

Pleased with my analysis, I watched my partner take my Diamond switch with the Ace (“C’mon, now partner; the inference is clear – maybe he’s chatting, too?”), and switch to a Spade! (“Lovely”, I thought, “He has misread this and thinks I have the Spade King which must be established before my trump is knocked out.”) I did not see that coming. But, no, partner’s play was immaculate. The full hand:

	North ♠  AQ5 ♥  AJ96 ♦  KJT72 ♣  A
West ♠   8642 ♥   Q ♦   A6 ♣   987654		East ♠  JT3 ♥  KT54 ♦  98 ♣  QJ32
	South ♠   K97 ♥   8732 ♦   Q543 ♣   KT

There never was a Diamond ruff to be had. In any case, my defense would only succeed if declarer had exactly 3 Diamonds. Even then, the winning defense would still work: Continue clubs at every opportunity. What is instructive here is the simple counting that would lead you to this answer: Declarer has the King of Clubs left, to stop one round; your side is in at the critical stage with the Ten of hearts, and will have two more chances to play Clubs, once with the other high trump, and once with the Ace of Diamonds. That is a total of three more chances to play Clubs. Both defenders have enough Clubs to play one when in. So, declarer will have to deal with three more rounds of Clubs. The first one he can win with the King, but both of the later two rounds must be ruffed, and he will run out. That will eventually promote your little trump to the setting trick.

But at least I had a nice chat!