The Setting Trick  --Book Review 

By Jared Johnson 
D17 ScoreCard Editor 

Setting the opponents’ contract is the bridge version of The Amazing Race. “Why didn’t you lead my suit?” “Why didn’t you switch to diamonds?” 

“Why didn’t you cash your king? It was the setting trick!” How often have you heard something like that at the bridge table? 

Thus, we have Ian McCance’s The Setting Trick, Practical Problems in Bridge Defense (Master Point Press, Toronto), a set of 100 defensive quizzes. 

Usually people do take the setting trick. Failure to do so is usually attributable to getting greedy, trying to set the contract even more tricks, but then failing to set it at all, or perhaps even more common, losing track of the number of tricks your side has and not realizing it was the setting trick. 

Most of the time, the more difficult task is setting up the setting trick. Many bridge hands are like a race. On defense, you are trying to set up your winners before declarer can set up a suit to take pitches on. Whoever wins the race, wins the hand. 

Perhaps there is a threatening long side suit in dummy that declarer can set up to take discards once he knocks out the ace or the king in the suit. You may have to make a risky lead away from an honor, hoping partner has something in the suit before your high honor in the side suit is dislodged. 

Often it isn’t as risky as it seems. Perhaps dummy is to your left, with the ace in some suit, and you lead away from a king, only to have it infuriatingly ride around to declarer’s queen. 

Have you lost something? Maybe. Maybe not. 

It could be that it wasn’t going to matter. With enough timing, declarer was going to set up that long suit in dummy and take pitches anyway, so you may have lost nothing. It just looks bad at the time. 

On other hands, you may not be wanting to set up winners, so much as cutting down on ruffs in the dummy, so you lead trumps at every opportunity. 

Based on the auction, you should have a good idea of what declarer’s hand looks like, and of course, after the opening lead you get to see the dummy. You must immediately ask yourself: Where will declarer get his tricks? With a long side suit in dummy, you usually need to set up tricks quickly. With a short suit in dummy and some trumps, kill those ruffs. 

Sometimes your side doesn’t have the high card clout to beat the contract on mere strength. You have to try for some defensive ruffs before declarer draws trumps. Again, it’s a race. 

Another key question: Based on the auction and the sight of dummy, is declarer in a comfortable contract, with extra values? Or, have the opponents pushed a little too aggressively to their game or slam contract? If the former, you may have to defend aggressively. You must go after your side’s tricks, because with enough timing, declarer will certainly make his contract. 

If the latter, you may want to go passive. The strategy isn’t so much to take something, as to not give anything away. Don’t break risky suits. Let declarer do his own work. 

And of course, there is notrump. There are no trumps for either side to worry about. The contract is three notrump? It’s just another race. You must take five tricks before declarer takes nine. 

All these possibilities are explored in The Setting Trick.