Duck a Winner in Defence: Timing the Hold Up
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This article will introduce a rule, which if you haven’t thought about much before, will make a big impact on the way you defend 3NT.
The rule is against 3NT do not release your entry(i.e duck your side suit winner), until you have fully set up your long suit. It's important to realise that you are ducking for a reason, to keep an entry to your long suit. Don't just generally make a habit of ducking for no particular reason..
(We will talk about some exceptions and considerations at the end of the article).
That means, if you have a long suit, generally five or more cards long, and a side entry, you should not use the entry card until the suit is FULLY set up.
A typical hand might look like this,
Until your long spades are all set up, the general idea is for you to keep your ♦A (side suit winner). Lets put this hand into the context of a full hand,
Your partner, South, leads the ♠7 (looks like a doubleton). You force out a top honour from declarer. Next they play a diamond to the King, what do you do? Do not release your entry till your suit is fully set up, therefore you duck.
A second example, using the same spade suit for convenience.
Declarer wins the spade lead in dummy and plays a heart to his Queen, what do you do? Duck, don’t take your entry until your side suit is fully set up. . Looks like you are giving away a trick? Keep reading till the end.
Why do people not normally do that? Its normal to cover an honour with an honour, and what I am suggesting is to go against that. You have to be careful going against that, because it’s a good rule. But that’s what makes bridge difficult.
Overall, the rule of not releasing your entry until your suit is completely set up is one that will serve you well.
To put your mind at ease, consider this simple suit example.
If you are sitting over dummy’s King with the Ace, you would think there is nothing more natural than to capture that King. 99 out of 100 times if declarer is playing that suit, especially early on, they have something good in their hand, say Q1098, in which case capturing the King doesn’t help your side, they will just finesse the Jack on the next round, lose to your partner, who will then set up your suit, while you still have an entry. . Or alternatively if they play low to their Queen, as in the third example, they probably have AQJ.
In other words, almost always if declarer is playing the suit early on, it won’t cost you to duck the winner against 3NT and you stand to gain a lot if you need the entry for your long suit.
When should you forget this rule?
All rules need to be used in the context of common sense. The more the hand goes on, the more you should know about the hand and the less you typically need to rely on general rules. .
Where to next
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