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Text © 1968, 2019 Eddie Kantar, Barbara Seagram

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Introduction to defense / Eddie Kantar.

Other titles: Introduction to defender’s play
Names: Kantar, Eddie, 1932- author. | Seagram, Barbara, editor.
Description: New edition revised and updated by Barbara Seagram. |
Previously published under
title: Introduction to defender’s play. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall,
1968.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190186410 | Canadiana (ebook)
20190186429 | ISBN 9781771400558
(softcover) | ISBN 9781554946495 (PDF) | ISBN 9781554946952
(HTML) | ISBN 9781771408943 (Kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Contract bridge.
Classification: LCC GV1282.3 .K23 2019 | DDC 795.41/53—dc23

Editor Ray Lee

Copy editor/interior format Sally Sparrow
Cover design Olena S. Sullivan/New Mediatrix

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 22 21 20 19
 Foreword to the Second
Edition
This book and its companion book, Introduction to Declarer
Play, are in my opinion the two best bridge books ever writ-
ten. Eddie Kantar has been my mentor and guru for many
years. He is the kindest, most wonderful man who has al-
ways been very generous with his time to teachers every-
where. Without Eddie, I would not have had the success that
I have had in teaching bridge. His bridge hands are legend-
ary and a joy to work with. His pearls of wisdom have taught
so many so much. We constantly have AHA! moments from
our students when we use them.

I was asked to tweak and modernize this book. This was a

privilege. I just wanted to see these books back in the mar-
ketplace so that students of today have access to this won-
derful learning tool.

If you are fairly new to the game, read this book, use the
techniques and then play a lot. Try to play duplicate as much
as you can. It is the way to get better. Go over two or three
hands each time after playing. Try sometimes to play against
and with better players — that way you can ask for advice.
Sometimes you will need a thicker skin. Bridge is a game of
mistakes; it is impossible to be perfect. You will have good
days and bad days… it’s all in a day’s work. Keep coming
back for more; the good always outweighs the bad. It is a
wonderful game and such good exercise for the brain.

Above all, have fun!

Barbara Seagram

Foreword to the Second Edition 3

 Contents
Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������ 7

Chapter 1: The Opening Lead against Notrump ������������ 9

Chapter 2: The Opening Lead against Suit Contracts�� 25

Chapter 3: Third-hand Play to the First Trick�������������� 41

Chapter 4: Signaling against Notrump ������������������������ 63

Chapter 5: Signaling against Suit Contracts���������������� 83

Chapter 6: Second-hand Play������������������������������������ 105

Chapter 7: Further Tips on Defensive Play ���������������� 147

Afterword������������������������������������������������������������������ 157

Index ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 158

Contents 5
 Introduction
There is no question that defense is the most difficult aspect
of playing bridge. Many players become adequate bidders by
simply memorizing the point count for various bids; others
find that being declarer becomes easy with practice. But de-
fense is a matter of logic and thus it requires not just experi-
ence but thought.

If you are a good defender it is almost impossible to be a los-

ing player. At least half of your opponents’ contracts can be
defeated with a good defense, but the sad truth is that about
eighty percent of them are fulfilled. Why? Because most play-
ers have not been well-drilled in the fundamentals of defen-
sive play, which are:

• knowing the suit and the card in that suit to lead that will
give partner the maximum amount of information
• knowing when to signal
• knowing when to play an attacking defense (taking your
tricks as quickly as possible) as opposed to a passive de-
fense (sitting back and waiting for your tricks)
• deciding what declarer is trying to do based on his man-
ner of play.

To use a football analogy, this is the blocking and tackling of

bridge. You cannot be a good bridge player unless you can do
these things with reasonable skill.

In this book, we will be assuming the use of standard signals

and leads. This is a system in common use throughout the
world. It is important to note that there are other methods,
some of which are equally good. You and your partner must
agree on which methods you are going to use — what mat-
ters most is that you are both on the same page. Sometimes
your opponents at the table will ask you what method you

Introduction 7
are using. If you are following the principles described in this
book, you can just reply: Standard.

One word about the text: in dealing with the dreaded ‘he/she’
problem, I decided to use ‘he’ for simplicity. If this offends
any woman reading the book, I apologize.

Eddie Kantar

8 Introduction to Defense
 Chapter 1

The Opening Lead against

Notrump
Some suit must be selected for the attack, and some one
card of that suit must be the first to advance.
R.F. Foster

What you’re going to learn:

»» How to decide which suit to lead against notrump
»» How to pick the right card to lead once you’ve chosen the
suit

In order to be a good defender you must have some objec-

tives in mind. What are they?

Go back and ask yourself how you play a hand as declarer.

You try to ‘establish’, or set up, your tricks before the defense
can establish theirs. You are fortunate in that you can see
both your hand and the dummy and can usually tell which
suit to establish. But even so you are almost always involved
in a race.

The defenders, on the other hand, cannot see each other’s

cards and often will waste time trying to establish the wrong
suit. However, the defenders have one great advantage that
overshadows all else — they have the opening lead! In other
words, in the great ‘establishing’ race the defenders always
get off to a head start; and if you consistently make the prop-
er opening lead, you will go down in history as one of the

Chapter 1: The Opening Lead against Notrump 9

world’s greatest players, even though your bidding and de-
fense may be just average!

Why is it so hard to make the proper opening lead? Opening

leads are based on the bidding and your hand. Sometimes
the bidding makes it clear which suit to lead, other times you
will have a clear-cut lead in your own hand, but much of the
time you will be forced to make an intelligent guess because
the bidding will not have given much away. Consider these
two bidding sequences by your opponents:

West (you) North East South

1NT
pass 3NT all pass

as opposed to:

West (you) North East South

1
pass 1 pass 3
pass 3 pass 3NT
all pass

In both cases, as West you have to make the opening lead.

In the first case your partner hasn’t bid and the opponents
have given away very little information. They may have a
weakness somewhere but you cannot be sure where. On that
first hand, you have a 25% shot at hitting your opponents’
weak spot.

Now take the second case. South has excellent clubs and
North has good diamonds. As West, you can eliminate a club
or a diamond as a possible opening lead because you don’t
want to waste your time establishing the opponents’ suits.
You would select either a heart or a spade lead depending
upon your hand. So, now you have a 50% chance of hitting
the opponents’ weak spot!

The important point is: listen to the bidding. You must listen
to the bidding; you can’t even begin to defend unless you do.

10 Introduction to Defense
As a general rule, the declarer will establish his longest suit
first, and the defense tries to do the same — the most logi-
cal way being to lead it. That is why, with nothing else to
go by, the opening leader leads a long suit. Notice the key
words, ‘with nothing else to go by’. However, many times you
are provided with plenty of information: your partner may
have bid, or the opponents may have bid your longest suit. In
such cases you would probably select another lead.

Assume, for the sake of argument, that after listening to the

bidding you have decided to lead your longest suit, as this is
by far the most common lead against notrump. Which card
do you lead? Let’s look at a hand.

Sitting West, you hold:

A8653 J742 Q3 82

The bidding has proceeded: 1NT on your right and 3NT on

your left. It is your lead. Now, if you could peek into your
partner’s hand and see that he had only one spade and five
hearts you would lead a heart because that is your combined
longest suit. Unfortunately, the rules do not permit this,
so you must assume, because you have more spades, that
spades is the longest combined suit. So you are going to lead
a spade — but which spade?

Normally, when leading a suit that has four or more cards you
lead your fourth-highest card. Fourth-highest means starting
at the top and counting down four places. In this case your
fourth-highest spade would be the five. Don’t make the mis-
take of starting at the bottom and counting up. Start at the
top and count down.

That’s simple enough, isn’t it? What’s the catch? The first
catch is that your suit may have a three-card sequence,
which simply means three equal cards at the head of the
suit. For example, QJ1042 would be an example of a three-
card sequence.

Chapter 1: The Opening Lead against Notrump 11

Whenever you hold a three-card sequence or longer at the
head of your suit you always lead the top card of the se-
quence. The top of a sequence rule takes precedence over the
fourth-highest rule. If the third card (the lowest card) in the
three-card sequence is missing by one spot (e.g. QJ92), it is
called a broken sequence; it is still considered a sequence
so the queen is led. However, if the third card drops off by
more than one spot (e.g. QJ82), you revert to the fourth-best
rule and lead the deuce against notrump.

TIP: Simply put, the rule for leading from a suit

of four or more cards is this: lead fourth-highest
unless the suit is headed by a sequence of three
or more cards; if it is, lead the top of the sequence
instead.

Test Yourself
Which card would you lead from each of these combinations?

1. K J 7 6 5 4. K Q J 10 2 7. J 10 7 6 4

2. A 8 7 2 5. K Q 10 8 5 8. Q J 8 7 3 2

3. K Q J 2 6. K Q 8 4 3 2 9. J 10 8 5 3

12 Introduction to Defense
Solutions

1. 6 Fourth-highest

2. 2 Fourth-highest

3. K Top of a sequence

4. K Top of a sequence

5. K Top of a broken sequence (the third card in the

sequence is missing by only one spot)

6. 4 Fourth-highest (you must have a three-card se-

quence before you can lead an honor card)

7. 6 Fourth-highest

8. 7 Fourth-highest

9. J Top of a broken sequence

Sometimes you will have a choice of suits to lead. For ex-

ample, sitting West you hold:

 Q 7 6 3  J 10 9 2  A 3  5 4 2

Once again the bidding goes 1NT on your right, 2NT on your
left, and everyone passes. It’s your lead and you have two
four-card suits. Which one should you lead? You should lead
a heart — the jack, to be more specific.

TIP: When holding two long suits, one of which

contains a sequence, you should lead the suit
with the sequence.

Chapter 1: The Opening Lead against Notrump 13

When you lead the top of a perfect sequence, you never give
away a trick — i.e. you never help the enemy. As a matter
of fact, sequences are such fine leads that if you also had
the 2 rather than the 2 you should still lead the J, even
though you had five spades and only four hearts.

Another possibility on opening lead is that your opponents

may have bid your longest suit. Let’s say you hold this hand:

 K 7 6 4 2  Q 10 4 2  J 10 7  2

Again, you are West and your right-hand opponent bids 1,
your left-hand opponent 2, 2NT on your right, and 3NT on
your left. Your partner has been as silent as a mouse and it’s
your lead.

Had the opponents simply bid notrump without mentioning

any suits, you would lead the 4. But spades have been bid,
and it is usually a bad idea to lead suits the opponents have
been bidding unless you have a strong sequence. So, we rule
out a spade lead and lead our next-longest suit, hearts. The
proper lead on the bidding would be the 2.

TIP: Usually, when you lead a suit the opponents

have bid, you are saying, ‘Let me give you a hand
with making this contract.’ Not recommended!

Now let’s keep the same hand but assume that our left-hand
opponent bids 2 instead of 2.

 K 7 6 4 2  Q 10 4 2  J 10 7  2

Once again, you are leading against notrump, only this time
your opponents have bid both of your long suits! When you
do not have a sequence in either of the bid suits, you nor-
mally select a lead from a three-card suit. In this case you
would lead the J. But why the jack, when you don’t have a
sequence?

14 Introduction to Defense
When leading from a three-card suit, you must keep a few
important points in mind. The most important is that the
ten, jack, queen, king, and ace are considered honor cards.
If you hold two touching honors and exactly three cards in
the suit you must lead the higher honor (the one exception to
this is that with AKx you lead the king — that is because the
lead of an ace against notrump has a special meaning, which
we’ll cover later in this chapter).

Remember that these are three-card holdings. If you have

four or more cards in the suit you should lead fourth-highest
or top of a sequence, depending upon the size of the third
card under the touching honors.

If you have three cards in the suit to be led headed by ei-

ther one honor or by two non-touching honors, you must
lead your lowest card. For example, if you were to lead from
Q104, you would lead the four. You have two non-touching
honors, and from this type of holding you lead low. Also, if
you had Axx, Kxx, Qxx, Jxx or 10xx, you would lead your
smallest card

Finally, if you have three spot-cards, such as 842 or 975 or

653, lead the top card. This is called leading Top of Nothing.

Leads may be easier to remember if you repeat ‘top of noth-

ing’, ‘low from an honor’, ‘top of a sequence’ and ‘fourth-high-
est’ a few times. A useful acronym is BOSTON — ‘bottom of
something, top of nothing’ — but remember that top of a
sequence always takes priority.

The easiest of all rules to remember when making an ini-

tial lead covers which card to lead with a doubleton. With
a doubleton, always lead the higher card first. Very often
partner will have thrown in a bid and you will be leading his
suit. When you have precisely two cards in that suit, lead the
higher card.

Chapter 1: The Opening Lead against Notrump 15

 Test Yourself
The time has come to do a little reviewing. Which card would
you lead from each of the following holdings?

1. J 9 7 5 3 7. K Q 3 2 13. K J 8 6 4 3

2. J 7 5 8. K 10 4 14. Q 3

3. 5 3 9. K J 9 3 2 15. 9 6 2

4. Q J 9 7 3 10. A K 7 5 2 16. Q 7 4 2

5. A 2 11. 10 9 3 2 17. 10 6 3

6. K Q 3 12. 10 9 4 18. 4 3 2

Solutions

1. 5 Fourth-highest

2. 5 Low from an honor

3. 5 Top of a doubleton

4. Q Top of a sequence

5. A Top of a doubleton

6. K Top of two touching honors, when holding ex-

actly three cards

7. 2 Fourth-highest, when holding two touching

honors and more than three cards

16 Introduction to Defense
 Index
Ace-king and king-queen, High-low discards
leading from 26-27, 156 against notrump contracts
Aces  79-80
in defense against notrump against suit contracts 104
contracts 18, 19 High-low signal in defense
in defense against suit against suit contracts 84-88
contracts 114-115 Honor cards
leading of ace against importance of playing proper
notrump 19 equal honors 148
Attitude signal leading of honors against
against notrump contracts notrump 17-20
 64-71 leading of honors against
against suit contracts 84-88 suit contracts 26-27
Bath Coup 68 third-hand play when
Bidding partner leads honor against
defenders’ use of 148-149 notrump 72
opening lead against whether to cover non-trump
notrump contracts, and honors 123-130
 10-11, 20-22 whether to cover trump
opening lead against suit honors 130-134
contracts, and 29-32 Interior sequences in lead against
when to lead trumps 36-38 notrump 19
Count signal King-queen, leading 26-27
against notrump contracts Low-high discards
 73-79 against notrump 79-80
against suit contracts 104 against suit contracts 104
Discard signals Opening lead
against notrump contracts against notrump contracts
 79-80  9-24
against suit contracts 104 bidding and10-11, 20-22
Establishing suits 9, 18 fourth-highest card11-12
Fourth-highest card, leading of leading of honors 17-20
 11-12, 28-29 sequence leads 11-14

158 Introduction to Defense

 against suit contracts 25-40 Trumps
bidding and 29-32 defenders’, leading of 36-38
leading away from king natural tricks in 30
 32-33 whether to cover honors in
leading of trumps 36-38  130-146
Queen from queen-jack signal Unblocking by third hand in
 88-90 defense 46, 59-60
Second-hand play 105-146
dummy to your left 120-130
dummy to your right106-119
whether to cover in non-
trump suits 123-130
whether to cover in trump
suits 130-134
Suit-preference signal 90-93
Takeout double, partner’s
passing of 36
Third-hand play to first trick
 41-62
common sense 62
when partner leads an honor
against notrump 72
with honor card in dummy
 51-55
with two or three small cards
in dummy 42-43
unblocking 46, 59-60
Three-card holdings, leading
from, in defense against notrump
contracts 14-15
Top of the sequence, leading
from, in defense against notrump
contracts 11-14
Tricks
declarer’s, counting by
defenders of 150-154
natural, in trumps 30

Index 159
 Don’t Miss the Essential Companion to
Introduction to Defense

Introduction to Declarer play

by Eddie Kantar
Whether you are a beginner or just looking to improve,
Introduction to Declarer Play will teach you the fundamental
concepts you need to become an accomplished player.

Part I: Playing a Hand in Part II: Playing a Hand in a

Notrump Suit Contract

1. Sure Tricks 8. The Trump Suit

2. Establishing Tricks 9. Counting Losers
3. Taking Tricks with the 10. Creating Extra Winners
Spot-cards 11. Long-Suit Establishment
4. Taking Tricks by Finessing 12. Ruffing in the Short
5. The Hold-up Play Hand
6. The Rule of Eleven
7. The Danger Hand

Available Now from Master Point Press

[Link]
NEWCOMER/INTERMEDIATE

The classic introductory book on defensive

cardplay at bridge, covering all topics with
clarity, skill and humor. More than fifty years
after first publication, this book has been revised
and updated by Barbara Seagram, one of North
America’s best-known bridge teachers, to bring it
into line with modern methods of play and bridge
education.

eddie kantar (California, USA) is a member

of the Bridge Hall of Fame, and former world
champion. He is the author of numerous
bestselling books on the game, and his columns
appear regularly in bridge magazines around the
world.

BARBARA SEAGRAM (Toronto, Canada) travels

the world teaching bridge. She is author or co-
author of more than a dozen well-known books,
the most popular being 25 Bridge Conventions You
Should Know.

MASTER POINT PRESS