Attitude Towards Defense

Planning a Defense

Defense Separates the Novices and Experts. Good defense is the most noticeable difference between intermediate players and those of a higher level of skill. Much of the real difference is the players' attitude toward defense.

Defense seems harder because there is a partner to communicate with without talking and you can't play half the cards in the deck like the declarer can.

But eventually most intermediate and higher level players will bid the cards properly - maybe not perfectly - but well enough to get to the right contract most of the time.

Winning bridge comes down to a matter of defense.

Defense is Where You Spend Most Of Your Playing Time. As a matter of fact, defense is where you spend the largest portion of your bridge playing time. Bidding takes about 1/3 of the time; play takes 2/3, and you are on defense 1/2 of playing time and declarer or dummy the other 1/2. You should enjoy the defensive part just as much as the other parts.

You should work on your attitude about defense until you relish beating declarer a trick at Two Hearts more than you enjoy bidding and making 6 NT. Why ? Because 6 NT will usually make because the Card Gods have put the cards in your hands to make 12 tricks, with maybe a finesse. Most properly bid Slams are almost laydowns.

Luck Isn't Part of Duplicate. But if you can take 6 tricks and beat the opponents' Two Heart contract, you are a good bridge player, and no thanks to the Card Gods. That's pretty good, and you're especially good if your competitive bidding has pushed them to the three level when they wanted to quit at Two Hearts.

We are concerned with defensive bridge where it is not so much the objective to beat the declarer as it is to beat the other players in your direction.

This is a definite and crucial difference from party bridge.