The defense

Deal analysis

Are you suffering from too rigid principles in defensive play in tarot? If it's the case, we will try to smash some of these rigid principles which are difficult to put aside.

1- When declarer shows a Poignée, can I play trump?

When we try to make the declarer to ruff, the goal we want to reach is either to void or reduce his trumps, or to obtain profitable overtrumpings or uppercuts. When none of these objectives are reachable, making the declarer to ruff becomes a useless line of play. Let's imagine a declarer with the following hand :

21-20-19-18-17-12-11-9-8-6-3-2-1
7-6-5-3-2
-
-
-

Some defenders, on the sight of the double Poignée, will think that it's urgent to find the ruff whereas actually it would be more realistic to think that it's completely useless. The only interesting possibility for the defense against this hand is to benefit from a possible bad break in .

What would be your line of play if you were the declarer? You would hurry to give the losing , without touching the trumps. You would not like that defenders with short could discard points on your spades, but rather prefer that they ruff your losing cards ineffectively (because they ruff their own winners!).

If it's in the advantage of the declarer to not touch the trumps, it's in the interest of the defense to not collaborate with him! As soon as declarer shows the double Poignée, the only good line of play for defense is to play trump, wishing the declarer will have some losers in his suits, on which it will be possible to discard. For example, if the breaks 5-2-2 or 5-3-1 in defense (very likely distribution). Note: my example is obviously extreme, but I wanted to show an attacking hand against which the defense cannot hope anything. This said, less powerful attacking hands can also qualify for a trump line of play.

And remember to not transform this example into absolute rule! Systematically playing trump against the Poignées is not a better principle than systematically make declarer to ruff. Remember this old Japanese proverb :

Splendid flowers blossom from the end of certainty.

2- Declarer's left-hand opponent must open all the suits

This one is often heard. The partisans of this theory would like that the defender who plays before the declarer opens the suits one after the other like a robot, even when declarer already ruffs 2 suits. They ignore that tarot is a dynamic game where times wasted to lead in the secondary suits or high honors of declarer can cost a lot. We prefer the following principles for the defender placed before :

• Follow the line of play proposed by the partners if there is not a good reason to disobey. This principle does not prohibit to try a small tarot for a 2-for-1 play (with an even trump if possible), especially if the first lead promised a strong hand (which should thus be able to tolerate a trump return). Obviously, a 2-for-1 play is only possible if defense already found declarer's ruff.
• Try to find declarer's ruff if the first lead did not find it. Blind obedience is not mandatory and it's not forbidden to switch suit to find the ruff, especially when there is no strong hand showed in defense.
• If nobody announced himself as a strong hand and if declarer pushes a long suit which is held by the defense, a trump play can be an interesting option. Especially if you estimate that the declarer ruffs a suit where you hold for example K-Q-x or K-Q-C-x.
• At the end of the deal, it may be necessary to rather think releasing your partners of a possible endplay than to return blindly in declarer's ruff.

3- We should never play in declarer's long suit

Here's another principle of the defensive play which suffers several exceptions, the most known being "the return in declarer's long suit to save the Petit in defense". This rescue play is often over-estimated by some players who systematically lead a short suit with the Petit vulnerable in hand. Although it is sometimes justified to try it, this play is risky for several reasons :

• The declarer did not have the intention to hunt the Petit and you nicely gave him one or two tempo which will enable him to overtake the defense.
• You led your doubleton from the bottom only to fall into R-C-V-x-x-x in declarer's hand, giving him a free finesse and permitting him to take the queen doubleton of your partner. So pleasant !

• You save the Petit which was taken otherway, but the declarer fulfil his contract which would have goes down on a "play trump all the way" defense. Not convinced? The next time that you will be declarer with a hand of this type :

  Ex-21-20-19-18-10-6-3-2
  x-x-x-x-x
  x-x-x
  x
  -

  You will probably (and wisely) play on , with the intuition that you will go down if you draw trumps, even if you take the Petit.

There are some cases where the return in declarer's long suit is playable, without involving the rescue of the Petit. For example, a player could try to make a small tarot on a ruff, which the declarer would have captured as soon as he would have taken the lead. Example :

Declarer's hand :
21-11-10-9
-
-
-
Q-1

Your hand :
19-8
Q
x-x
-
2

Declarer plays the 11 of trump for your 19. Situation :

• You are placed just before the declarer.
• Declarer's long suit is club. The queen is set up but not the small club since there are 2 more clubs in defense.

Declarer has 2 losers in hand, one club and one trump. He just conceded the trump loser to your 19. If you return a or a to make him ruff, he will extract your last tarot before conceding the losing on which you will not even be able to discard a valuable card since you hold another club.

It's an ideal situation to return your last instead of making him ruff. Declarer will find your play very unpleasant ! Since there remains a small trump in defense and declarer does not know where it is, there is a good chance that he does not dare to go up with the queen to risk the ruff. He will play small and your partner will take the lead. Just hope your partner understood the situation and return his last to give you the ruff of declarer's Q.

Another situation where it can be interesting to play in declarer's long suit is when we want to eliminate a card that will force us to make an unfavourable lead. For example, in end of game :

Declarer's hand :
21-19
K-C
5
-
-

Defender's hand :
20-18
Q-x
K
-
-

The defender has the lead and declarer's long suit is . If the defender wants to make his Q, he must absolutely cash the k before giving the lead to declarer with a trump. If he omits to cash it and only play the 20 of trump, declarer will cash the 19 and play the last to endplay the defender with the K. The defender will be forced to lead from Q-x in spade and will lose 2 tricks.

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