There's no doubt defense can be very difficult but you shouldn't give
up without investigating every possible solution. Here is a hand
where the defenders took all of their tricks and then one more.
Scoring: Matchpoints (pairs)
Hand #10
Dlr
E
Vul
N/S
Q76
765
AK85
A85
A4
KJ1084
6432
J9
J109852
A2
1097
Q6
K3
Q93
QJ
K107432
West
North
East
South
Pass
Pass
Pass
1
Pass
3
All Pass
BIDDING: South thought
about opening but finally passed. After North opened the auction,
South jumped to show a good suit and an invitational hand. North
was not interested in game opposite a passed hand and ended the auction.
PLAY: West led the jack
of hearts to his partner's ace. East returned the deuce of hearts to the ten
and West then played the king for the third defensive trick.
Next, West cashed the ace of spades and considered where the setting
trick might be. He realized declarer surely had most of the
remaining high cards for his invitational bid but if East held
the queen of clubs, the defense could succeed. Accordingly, he led a fourth heart and East obliged by
trumping with the queen. Declarer had no choice but to over ruff
and West now defeated the contract with his trump trick.
This ability to "uppercut" is often overlooked by defenders. When
it looks like declarer has the rest of the tricks, sometimes it works
to give a ruff-sluff and see if partner can promote one of your trumps.
