In the DARE hands last Monday, the moderator remarked that although the hands were intended as problems in declarer play, defense could also arise as an issue. Hand 4 made this point strongly. It was played 4 times. Twice the defense started down a path to set it but the hand made, twice the defense played so the hand could be made but it went down.
https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|S,W,N,E|md|2ST4HAQJDK8532CAJ4,S9853HKT7DQJT7C65,S762H943DA4CKQ972,SAKQJH8652D96CT83|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%204|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|mb|1D|mb|P|mb|2C|mb|P|mb|2N|mb|P|mb|3N|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|
The prescribed opening lead is the spade 8.
First assume that EW cash all four spades, as happened at two tables. From the auction, we then know that W has the heart K so forget the finesse. Assuming clubs run, we see 8 tricks. How do we make the hand? Say that after the spades are cashed, E leads a heart. Declarer needs W to have the heart T as well as the K, and four diamonds. And so it is. So the hand can be made on a red suit squeeze after the first four spades are cashed. On the spades, S follows twice and then throws two diamonds while dummy follows thrice and then tosses a heart. The threats are the heart 9 and the diamond 8, and transportation is intact.
At two other tables, after E won the first spade, he switched to a heart. The count is not rectified, the squeeze won't work, so the heart Q loses to the K, but now W needs to return a spade. He didn't. A diamond was returned. that's that for the defense.
So the defensive question is: How does E convey the message "Hey buddy, I am playing a heart here to get you off the squeeze, please continue spades after you take the heart K"? Squeezes can be tough to recognize, squeeze defense even tougher.
Maybe I have a weird sense of humor but it seems amusing that when the defense cashes the first four spades the hand could be made but wasn't, and when E switches to a heart at T2 the hand could be set but wasn't.
Any thoughts?
I have no idea if we want to look at defensive issues for DARE, but then why not?
Added: It's a bridge adage that when defending against 3NT you should not cash four tricks until you know where the fifth is, or might be, coming from. That explains the heart switch at T2.