Do you automatically return the suit partner has led? You should think first … with both sides vulnerable, your left-hand opponent (LHO) opens 1❤️ as dealer. Partner overcalls 1♠️ and right-hand opponent (RHO) bids 2♦️. If you were not vulnerable, you might have made a pre-emptive raise to 3♠️, but with both opponents showing strength, this doesn't seem to be wise so you pass.
LHO now rebids 2❤️, promising a 6+ suit; RHO invites game with a raise to 3❤️ but LHO passes. Partner leads ♦️8 and this is what you see:
What do you know and what are you thinking about?
Firstly, if partner has a 5- or 6-card spade suit, even if he has ♠️A, declarer has only one loser in that suit. Secondly, it's likely that partner has 3 hearts, with hearts 6=3=2=2 around the table. Thirdly, partner's lead suggests he has a singleton or a doubleton diamond, plus he may have holdings in the other suits that he did not wish to lead away from, which would have persuaded him to lead the opponent's suit. Therefore partner's shape appears to be either 5=3=2=3, 6=3=2=2 or 6=3=1=3. In two out of 3 likely cases, partner will have a doubleton diamond.
If you manage to extract all of that from the auction and the opening lead, you have the answers to the questions you should have been asking yourself, which were: (1) Should I win ♦️A and return a diamond, hoping to give partner a ruff, or should I switch? (2) If I switch, should it be to a spade, a trump or a club?
Once you decide that partner has probably made a safe lead rather than an attacking singleton lead, you should switch. As it's clear that any winners partner might have in the major suits will not run away, you should return a club.
In fact that's the only way for your side to defeat the contract – on a club switch at trick 2, declarer goes down. On any other return she will make 9 tricks, because this was the full deal:
Declarer was unlucky to have both missing heart honours sitting over her. However, without the club switch, she will lose only 2 hearts, a spade and the diamond ace, because partner cannot attack clubs from his side. On the day this deal turned up at the club, only one declarer in hearts was held to 8 tricks.
In defence, counting out partner's likely shape makes it possible to find the switch that might defeat the contract.
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Rakesh Kumar
The Southern Highlands Bridge Club runs three duplicate sessions every week (Mon 1:00 pm, Wed 6:30 pm, Sat 1:00 pm) at the East Bowral Community Centre. Highlands players and visitors welcome!
For more information: https://shbc.bridgeaustralia.org
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