Blum on Bridge The best offense Part II
	Last week we dealt primarily with defending against a contract by the hand playing immediately after declarer calls a card from either his hand or dummy. I truly believe that if I wrote an article on defense every week for the rest of the year I still would be unable to completely cover this most integral portion of the game. My editor would probably take the "offense" and shoot me if I took this approach, but I can certainly sneak in a couple of more columns regarding the subject. When you ask a reasonably knowledgeable bridge enthusiast which part of his game does he feel is his Achilles heel, he will almost invariably say "defense." Now let's talk more about murdering the declarer, legally. Most of you know that when pard leads the king from AK and you hold QJ10 the play of the queen states you also hold the jack. Also when declarer is running his suit and you no longer hold cards in that suit, discarding the queen from your suit guarantees the jack. However, this axiom goes further. Regardless of the sequence whether it be KQJ or J109 the play of the top of the sequence by third hand guarantees holding the card below it. There is an obvious exception. Suppose declarer is in a suit contract, say four spades, and pard leads the king of hearts. Dummy has a singleton heart. To continue hearts would be useless as declarer will trump in dummy. Therefore, the play of your card should indicate which of the remaining two suits, diamonds or clubs, you prefer. A high card asks for the higher suit, diamonds and a low card asks for the lower suit, clubs. If you have no honor or shortness in either suit, play a middle spot card to indicate this. Describing your hand in this manner is known as "suit preference." In addition to the obvious, your play has alleviated any problem your partner may have later when he is forced to discard. Another excellent rule to follow is when discarding a suit partner has lead, discard the card you would have played had you been able to return his suit. For example against 3NT partner leads fourth best, the five, from A10853. You hold Q962 and dummy has two small. Naturally, play your queen, which is taken by the king. Partner knows declarer has the jack. Why? Because had you held a sequence as third hand you should play the bottom card first (QJ10 play the 10 or QJ play the jack). What your partner does not yet know is whether or not declarer's jack is part of a doubleton KJ. Thus, if you have a chance to make an early discard, play the deuce-informing partner your original holding was either two or four cards. Should pard regain the lead he could legally "murder" the declarer by "banging" down his ace. When I began today's column I honestly didn't know which element of defense I would write about. Now that we're into discards I've discovered it can fill the page. Another phase of proper card play is unblocking to set-up pard's long suit. Gosh, how many times have you held something like A1094 in a suit that partner holds K8532 from which he leads the three. You win the ace and thoughtlessly return the four. Declarer plays the queen overtaken by partner's king. You have incredulously blocked the suit to where you and pard probably will not have enough entries to establish his long suit fifth card winner. You must keep in mind those important spot cards partner may hold in lieu of honors. Discipline play of the ten, then the nine would certainly please pard and once again "kill" the declarer. Before closing I must tell you about an unusual "wish" I had as declarer last week. Three tricks remained to be played. In a contract of three spades I held the AQ but couldn't pull the opponents' last spade, the king, because I needed to trump a club with dummy's last trump card. All clubs were gone save one higher than mine. If I could successfully trump I would return to my hand by trumping a heart with my queen and pull the opponents' king with my ace. I knew one of them had a heart, the other two. What I didn't know was who had the club and who had that pesky king. I played a club and lho followed suit. Knowing rho was void I had to wish and pray the king was "off side," held by my lho. Sorry folks. Unhappy ending as rho gleefully placed his king on the table, thereby setting your correspondent.