[Phil]

My wife had some errands to run yesterday, so I called up Mark Leonard (who recently relocated to Southern California) for a game at Laguna Woods. Here's a straightforward example of good partnership defense:

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Mark led the ♦J, declarer winning in hand with the ♦K. Since I cannot possibly want a diamond, I played the 2 (UDCA) to show an even number; probably four in this context from Mark's perspective.

Declarer played the ♠K and a spade up (I followed with the 6 and 7). Seeing North discard a low heart (encouraging) she panicked and played the ♠A. Declarer does best at this point by playing clubs. The heart position prevents us from running the suit, and she can escape for -2. However, declarer continued to misstep and cashed the two remaining diamonds.

Mark sensibly unblocked the ♦T on the 3rd round which created an entry for me. When declarer belatedly played a club, I hopped with the Ace. I cashed the ♠T and Q in that order, to tell partner I'm cashing spades and to save whatever winners he has left. The ♥9 hold partner I didn't possess anything in that suit, so when North won the Ace, he simply played a diamond back to my nine for a 2nd heart play and we claimed for down 5 - +250.

I don't think there is anything magical about this hand on defense, and its not something I would even brag about, but it illustrates the type of basic defense that you need to execute to do well in a matchpoint game.

Obviously declarer made many misplays. Surrendering control of trumps by not ducking a round was a serious error. She should start by leading a spade toward the Ace, and one back toward her hand, which is indicated due to the preempt. Or, she can start clubs sooner, or even concede a heart prior to cashing the two high trump. A competent declarer should make 10 tricks here.

Strangely, no one made 10 tricks. +140 was a shared top for NS. Someone doubled 4♠ and beat it 3, so our +250 was an 11 out of 12.

[JLOGIC]

Quote

I don't think there is anything magical about this hand on defense, and its not something I would even brag about, but it illustrates the type of basic defense that you need to execute to do well in a matchpoint game.

Nice careful unblock by Mark, but would +150 really have been a much different matchpoint score? It seems like on this hand all you had to do well in a matchpoint game was not revoke.

Your plays seem largely irrevlant, had you not given count he would have known the count by the time declarer showed out, had you cashed the SQ before the ST, he would still always pitch his heart loser(he had no choice) folowed by his club loser when you played the ST, and had you led back a low heart he still would have come back a diamond to you given his unblock. The only important play on the hand was to unblock the DT for down 5 instead of down 3 which probably made no difference.

[Phil]

There was a +150 and a +200 our way so if we lose the 2 unders we get a 9.5 instead of an 11. I did not notice what the 2nd place pair received.

We won with a 205. 2nd place was a 203.5

[matmat]

wow Phil! you won a club game?!
I am so proud to know you!

[Rossoneri]

JLOGIC, on 2011-June-12, 17:20, said:

Nice careful unblock by Mark, but would +150 really have been a much different matchpoint score? It seems like on this hand all you had to do well in a matchpoint game was not revoke.

Your plays seem largely irrevlant, had you not given count he would have known the count by the time declarer showed out, had you cashed the SQ before the ST, he would still always pitch his heart loser(he had no choice) folowed by his club loser when you played the ST, and had you led back a low heart he still would have come back a diamond to you given his unblock. The only important play on the hand was to unblock the DT for down 5 instead of down 3 which probably made no difference.

I didn't quite get the point about ST before SQ, is there some sort of expert consensus to play it like this?

That aside, yes, the unblock was the most important, and yes, it doesn't really seem like +150 would have been much different, but I guess the point Phil was trying to make is that, it could matter when you're trying to get the highest score at matchpoints.

[JLOGIC]

Whenever you are on defense and can pull trumps with dummy on your right, you can do it from the bottom up in order to tell partner immediately how solid your trumps are. For instance, if you cash the queen of trumps, he doesn't know the location of the ten. This may affect his plan on the hand wrt discarding. Of course sometimes there are suit preference implications, it's really just a case by case basis. Obviously on this hand nothing mattered once partner unblocked his diamond.

[rduran1216]

Mark's a nice player. I'll have to ask him how he liked the club there since he relocated.

[wyman]

rduran1216, on 2011-June-12, 23:00, said:

Mark's a nice player. I'll have to ask him how he liked the club there since he relocated.

+1, and a hell of a guy.

Thanks for posting, Phil.

[And Justin, while what you say is true, this is B/I, and there are definitely things that B/I can take away from the hand, such as:

1) Phil's card T1 should be count, as explained in the note. Maybe the count card didn't help Mark here, but on another hand it might be crucial.
2) Mark's unblock was extremely thoughtful. Preserving communication to partner is important (in particular, a mistake I see a lot is: "oh, mine's not high, so I'll pitch it.")
3) With the preempt on his left, declarer should take a better line in trumps. Moreover, he's going to lose at least one trump due to his anemic holding, and losing it earlier is often preferable to losing it -- and control -- later.
4) When drawing opps' trumps with a solid holding, cash them from the bottom up, so partner knows what's going on. [I didn't know this was standard, so thanks Justin].
5) When declarer missteps and now is at risk of having trumps drawn, he should do what he can to attempt to retain control (in this case, not cashing his diamonds).

Anyway, I think this is a nice hand. Nothing brilliant, but the defense just did the things it was supposed to, and you're generally rewarded for that in club games.]

[han]

Go Mark!