It’s a rare deal that has interesting points for all three major parts of bridge: bidding, declarer play and defense. So, let’s take them in that order.

Bidding

Playing an KO match (IMPs) you hold in first seat at R/W:

♠AKx
♥xxxx
♦Jx
♣AKQJ

You open 1♣ and the bidding proceeds:

North (You)	East	South	West
1♣	P	1♠	4♥
?

Sometimes in bridge there is no “right” answer and this is one of those situations. From all appearances, this is a key decision point in this hand and you don’t have a lot of information about partner’s hand. He could have four spades in a flat hand, four spades with a longer minor or five or more spades. He could also have something barely worth a response all the way to something that puts us in the slam range.

If the opponents hadn’t preempted, you would have rebid 2N to get the nature of this hand communicated. Partner would then be able to use your partnership bidding tools to get more information about your hand (say, whether you have three spades) and you would be fairly confident that because of the amount of information you were able to exchange, you have landed in the best spot. Unfortunately, the preempt has tossed that confidence out the window.

Meanwhile, the rest of the table is waiting for you to bid. Obviously, you must take action with this hand. The standout options are X and 4♠. The arguments in favor of X are that you pretty sure this contract will go down and at IMPs “taking the cash” is always on the table. On the down side, this is the worst vulnerability and it may be hard to get sufficient compensation if your side is making a game.

For 4♠, the obvious risk is that partner may have only four spades. If that is the case, then he may lose control of the hand. But partner is guaranteed to be short or even very short in hearts and this increases the odds that he has at least five spades. Plus if he does have only four spades, then he’s not down yet as the old saying goes.

Neither choice is without risk and either could be very right or very wrong. The vulnerability tips the choice on this hand and 4♠ is your choice. The next hand doubles and that ends the auction – uh oh, this could be bad. At least partner has to play it.

Declarer Play

Dummy
♠AKx
♥xxxx
♦Jx
♣AKQJ

Declarer
♠Q109x
♥x
♦KQxxx
♣xxx

North	East	South (Now You)	West
1♣	P	1♠	4♥
4♠	X

OK, partner has expressed great confidence in your declarer play. Let’s see if you can validate it. The opening lead is the ♥K overtaken by the ace. RHO returns a middle diamond won by LHO with the ace, who plays the ♥Q. You ruff after RHO pitches a small diamond. In order to see where you are, you play a diamond to the jack, ruffed by RHO, who now plays a small club.

Time to take stock – RHO started with one heart and two diamonds and therefore ten black cards. RHO also started with the ♥A and maybe the ♠J. With at most a five count facing a preempt, it is a virtual certainty that RHO has at least five spades and maybe all six. But that also means that RHO has at least four clubs and you can cash all the clubs if you get rid of LHO’s potential singleton spade – so one trump drawn, one heart ruff already in and four clubs brings the total up to six tricks. With two trumps remaining in each hand, a red suit crossruff would bring you up to ten tricks. Since RHO is also out of both red suits, you can’t allow RHO to overruff dummy, so you must leave both high spades in dummy. You also can’t release the ♠Q too early as that would allow RHO to ruff with the ♠J in front of your hand.

With that information, can you identify the key play?

After winning the the club return in dummy, you lead a small spade to your ten, taking the small chance that LHO has the singleton ♠J. Today, LHO pitches a heart on this trick and it is now simple to cash the remaining clubs and continue with your “high” (since you know that the ♠J is onside) crossruff, enjoying the last four tricks as RHO has to helplessly under ruff four times.

Defense

But can the defense do better?

♠Jxxxxx
♥A
♦xx
♣xxxx

You certainly can’t blame this defender for wanting to double 4♠. It does tell declarer about the bad trump break and you do need a little help from partner, but it would take a strong constitution to not express an opinion about this contract.

Upon winning the ♥A, you know that partner is void in spades and that declarer is out of hearts. When you have long trumps, forcing declarer is often a good plan, but that is usually done when you have equal or one fewer trump than declarer. Here you are longer in trumps than declarer. Even if partner doesn’t have a high diamond, it really looks like declarer will want to take some ruffs. This looks like the time to lead a trump.

Here it works very well in that you will still get to pitch your small diamond when partner wins the ♦A and plays the ♥Q as before. Now when you ruff the diamond, you can play a second spade that reduces the number of tricks that can be taken on the crossruff and declarer will end up one trick short.

On this hand where you have more trumps than declarer, you should think about the techniques you would use if you were the declarer. You would lead trumps to prevent the defense from take their trumps separately. The same concept applies even though you are a defender.

Full Hand

			North
		♠	AK2
		♥	xxxx
		♦	Jx
		♣	AKQJ
	West				East
♠	—-			♠	Jxxxxx
♥	KQJ10xxx			♥	A
♦	Axxx			♦	xx
♣	xx			♣	xxxx
			South
		♠	Q109x
		♥	x
		♦	KQxxx
		♣	xxx