Tap Dance by Ben Norton

A: ♥2. You expect six Spades to be on your right and you will take three trump tricks, so a force will be effective.

When you get in three times more with your ♠A, ♠Q and ♠10 you will force declarer in Hearts each time, hopefully reducing his trump length to one fewer card than yours. Thus you will have promoted your fourth trump. This line of defense will probably need partner to have either two of the top four Heart honors in a four-card holding or one of the top three in a five-card holding for the force to work, so you hardly need much from the other side of the table to succeed.

By leading a minor suit you would just be surrendering a tempo, since then declarer will have been able to draw your trumps by the time you’ve forced him twice. There is a case for leading the ♥K, since the hand on your right is more likely to have Heart shortage, you may pick up a singleton Queen, Jack or Ten in his hand. But because declarer is also the stronger hand from the bidding, there is a sizeable risk of finding him with a singleton Ace, or a doubleton when you’re removing a trick one guess for him.

Your result so far:

A: ♦10. This time a forcing defense isn’t so attractive, mainly because the opponents are known to be in a 5-4 fit.

Even if you are able to tap declarer by leading Spades, there will still be four trumps on the dummy which you won’t be able to reduce, thus declarer will be able to retain trump control. In this way there’s not much upside to a Spade lead. It could establish a trick for the defense but it’s more likely to blow the suit by leading into declarer’s Jack or picking up a stray honor in partner’s hand.

Despite not being able to employ a forcing defense you do still have a nasty surprise in store for declarer, who doesn’t know where the Heart honors are. You’re likely to take two trump tricks and partner may well have two more defensive tricks if you just leave declarer to his own devices. Thus you should opt for the passive ♦10 lead.

Your result so far:

A: ♠A. Once again the opponents have landed in a 5-4 fit, so a forcing defense isn’t going to work.

A passive lead might seem indicated here, but in fact that’s not the case. Even though the cards seem to be lying badly for declarer, your trumps are poor and there’s no real sign that your side will definitely take four tricks if you don’t adopt an active line of defense. Since West has shown short Hearts declarer will definitely look to ruff Hearts on the dummy, indeed three Hearts ruffs might be his only way to get to ten tricks.

When you have lots of points in defense to a game contract, it’s often the case that declarer’s main source of tricks will be ruffs. Therefore you lead the ♠A and intend to follow up with another trump at trick two to reduce dummy’s ruffing capabilities, hoping to score a Heart trick or two at a later stage.

Your result so far:

A: ♦3. Even though you know that you have more trumps than dummy, there’s very little hope for a forcing defense here.

For a tap to work you’ll need partner to have very good Spades, such that declarer doesn’t have a trick in the suit, and your side will need to gain the lead again at a point when declarer hasn’t set up his minor suit tricks. The main problem is that your trumps are very poor. You’re very unlikely to take a Heart trick, so declarer won’t have any problems drawing trumps. On a Spade lead, even if partner’s holding is good enough, declarer will ruff, establish dummy’s minor suit (it might not even need to be established if the suit is Clubs, because your King is likely to be well placed for declarer), ruff the Spade continuation, draw trumps and claim.

Your best chance of beating 4♥ is to take a Diamond ruff or two, so you set off with your singleton Diamond. It may be the case that partner has both pointed suit Aces, in which case you’ll beat this contract straight off the bat, whereas a Spade lead would use up partner’s Spade entry at a point when he doesn’t want to use it, because then you’ll only take one Diamond ruff.

Your result so far:

A: ♣A. Even though you don’t have longer trumps than the opponent with the shorter trump holding, a forcing defense could work here.

Both your trumps and your long side-suit are good enough to harbour real hopes of reducing dummy’s trump length to such an extent that you can then begin to force declarer. It’s eminently possible that East-West are in a 4-4 fit, so by forcing them then holding up your ♥A until the third round of the suit, at the point when the hand with short Clubs is void of trumps, you stand to be able to force the hand opposite the Club shortage to force declarer to lose trump control.

Even if they are in a 5-4 fit and it’s not possible to take over trump control, on this hand it could still be vital to shorten dummy’s trumps because he has a long, solid Diamond suit. You hope to extract the late trump entries to dummy at a time when declarer hasn’t drawn enough trumps to enjoy the Diamonds. By tapping the dummy you might also be making the trump position awkward for declarer such that he can’t pick up your Jack anymore.

It’s best to lead the ♣A for a couple of reasons. Firstly there might be a singleton in one of the opponents’ hands and the King in the other, meaning you’d give away a cheap trick by leading a small one. Secondly, laying down the Ace will help if there’s a singleton on dummy and partner has the King, for then you’ll be able to lead through the dummy, forcing it to ruff thin air. If you were to lead a small one to partner’s King declarer would be able to force out your Ace and later control the suit, meaning the force wouldn’t be viable.

When considering whether or not to adopt a forcing defense, consider the following factors:

- Your trump length (generally only play for a tap when you have four or more trumps)
- Your side-suit length (usually you’ll need at least five cards or a very good four-card holding in the suit you're forcing them with)
- The trump length of the opposition hands (generally it’s only a good idea to force the opponents when you have longer trumps than one of them, but this might not be the case, for example if you want to extract entries from one hand or tighten the trump position so that declarer can’t pick up your holding)
- The quality of your trumps (if they’re quite poor then try to score ruffs, if they’re good then there’s a fair chance of a force because declarer won’t be able to draw trumps straight away)
- The quality of your long suit (if you have for example x x x x x then the force probably won’t work because your cards aren’t winners, whereas if you have an honor you need much less from partner for your cards to be made good)

Your result so far: