Partner then made a good return of his ♠7. What is so good about partner leading a trump at this point? West may have left East’s double in holding ♠KJ108. While that is a strong holding behind RHO’s 2♠, West cannot lead the suit without giving up a trick and it may well turn out that at some point West will have to lead the suit. West needs someone else, anybody (!), to do so before that happens. Partner stepped up nicely.
Of course, West did not hold ♠KJ108; he held KQ62. What should he play? At the table, West covered Declarer’s ♠8 with his ♠Q.
Big mistake! W should not have covered.
We cover an honor with an honor to set up a later trick for ourselves or for partner. (There are other reasons, but they come up seldom up every session.) As West can see, he cannot be setting up a spade trick for partner; partner has a singleton. Furthermore, he is not setting up a trick for himself; his 6 and 2 will never get promoted to winners.
The textbook example of when not to cover an honor with an honor is this layout in a NT contract:
QJ109
32---------------------------K754
A86
When Declarer leads the queen from Dummy, East must not cover. East can see that by covering he cannot set up a trick for himself or partner. Moreover, if Declarer does not hold 4 cards to the ace in the suit, East will win a trick only if he does not cover.
Indeed, in today’s deal, by covering West gave Declarer what would be his 6th trick. West can see the Dummy only has ♠A5. By ducking twice, West will set up 2 spade tricks for himself. But by covering Declarer’s 8, he has just given up one of those tricks.
Declarer won the ace and led a diamond from Dummy. East ducked and Declarer played his ♦Q. West won his ♦K and was on lead again. What do you think he should choose? West chose his ♣3.
Another big mistake! West had just given Declarer a finesse in clubs that Declarer himself could not accomplish as he no longer has any entries to Dummy—not in spades, not in hearts, not in diamonds, not in clubs.
When Declarer has no entries to Dummy, one of the goals of the defense is to never lead a suit that gives Declarer a finesse he can never take himself since he can no longer reach Dummy to take it. Instead, West should make a passive or safe exit when he is on lead.
A good exit is a heart. He knows partner has the AQ behind Dummy’s K, so Declarer will have to ruff it. Then Declarer will be on lead from his hand, just what the defense wants.
Another safe play is to cash his winning spade honor. Partner is void and will give him a signal as to what suit to lead. If partner’s signal is ambiguous, West can always then exit with his low, worthless spade.
A third safe exit, though he does not know it yet, is to lead his last diamond. Partner can win it and continue the suit, allowing West to ruff Declarer’s now high ♦Q, reducing Declarer’s trick count.
Finally, leading a club is West’s worst option. But if he decides to lead it, he must lead his 2nd highest club, the 6. By doing so, he is telling partner that he has no help for him in the club suit; partner needs to know that he is on his own in defending that suit for their side.
As we saw, West did exit his 4th best club. After E won his ♣A, he took his partner’s ♣3 to be promising a meaningful honor—which the 10 is not at this point!—and led his ♣Q. That gave Declarer his 7th and 8th tricks. Had East cashed his ♦A and exited a diamond, Declarer would have had to eventually give East his ♣Q. Playing on diamonds, or even making the safe exit of the ♥A were certainly options for East. But his partner’s lead of a low club suggested that clubs was their suit, which of course it wasn’t.
To recap, when your partner leaves in your double of the opponent’s preempted suit, then, when you get in, lead your singleton trump. It helps partner make the most of his trumps.
Secondly, watch for the exceptions to “cover an honor with an honor.”
Finally, when Declarer has no entries to Dummy, if you keep on putting him back in his hand, you will secure the most tricks available to the defense.
Good defense makes you a winner. Building up your defensive skills is time well spent. The doubled 2♠ contract should have never been successful and careful defense would have beaten it by at least 2 tricks (2 spades, 1 heart, 2 diamonds, 2 clubs) for a fine result.
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