You could grab your ♣A and
lead your trump. That will stop a second Heart ruff in Dummy. The danger
is that, after drawing trumps, if Declarer has a second Club, she will be
able to run the Clubs, pitching away all her red suit losers.
Does that mean you should
duck the first Club trick? Not necessarily, that could also be fatal.
Declarer’s Jack might be singleton in which case, if you duck, Declarer
ruffs another Heart in Dummy, returns to hand with a Club ruff, and draws
trumps. Her shape is likely to be 7=3=2=1, and she can now build her 11th
trick by leading a Diamond towards Dummy.
So, the success of the
defense depends upon West guessing whether Declarer started with one or two
Clubs. What’s your guess?
►
No guessing is required for
those defenders who give count signals when Declarer leads a suit. If E-W
are using this valuable tool then, on the first round of Clubs, East plays
low to show an odd number (of Clubs), and high to show an even number. On
the actual deal, East plays the Two, so West knows that Declarer’s ♣J cannot
be singleton and that he can safely duck that trick. After winning the ♣J,
Declarer ruffs another Heart in Dummy, but can score no more than 10 tricks,
via seven Spades in hand, two Heart ruffs in Dummy and one Club.
►
|
♠ 65
♥
♦
K98762
♣ KQT96 |
|
♠ Q
♥
AKT43
♦
AJ54
♣ A53 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ 874
♥
QJ962
♦
QT
♣ 842 |
|
♠ AKJT932
♥
875
♦
3
♣ J7 |
|
If East started with ♣8742,
he would play the Eight on the first round of Clubs (high to show an even
number), from which West deduces that the ♣J is singleton (Jxx is possible
but less likely) and that the ♣A must be grabbed and a trump returned.