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B B
3 BETTER
VOL. 16, NO. 2
BRIDGE
N OVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
Playing with a trump suit certainly
has its advantages, but we may also
need to plan the play carefully if we
want to establish and take advantage
of a long suit. We must think about
entries and see that the defenders
don’t use the trump suit against us.
Let’s make a small change in the
previous deal by having West lead
the K instead of the K.
It doesn’t seem that would make a
lot of difference, but it removes the
A, the entry we previously used to
get to our established heart winner.
Now we’ll have to use dummy’s K
as the entry, and the play becomes
much more challenging.
We win the first trick with dummy’s
A and can afford to draw two
rounds of trumps with our A and Q,
leaving the K in dummy. It would
be nice if the missing trumps had
divided 2–2, but unfortunately, they
are 3–1. That’s not entirely unexpected
if we recall the guideline that an
even number of missing cards tends
to divide slightly unevenly.
So we’ll have to leave West with
the last outstanding trump, the 10.
We need that K for later.
Next we play the A and a heart
to dummy’s K. Should we play the
Q and discard a loser now? If we
do, West will ruff with that annoying
10, and we’ll be a trick short.
Instead, anticipating that the suit
will likely divide 4–2, we must lead
a low heart now and trump it to
establish the suit. But not with just
any trump. If we trump with a low
spade, West will overruff with the
10. We need to ruff with the J.
West can’t overruff that!
Finally, we make use of dummy’s
carefully preserved K.When we lead
a spade to dummy’s K, not only
does it drawWest’s last trump, but it
also provides the entry to our heart
winners. We take dummy’s Q and
discard one of our losers, and then lead
dummy’s last heart to discard another
loser. We again finish with twelve
tricks...but it was a lot of hard work!
Let’s practice with a couple more
deals. In this next deal, we are in
only 4 , and West leads the Q.
WEST NORTH EAST S OUTH
1
Pass 2 Pass 2
Pass 4 All Pass
Dummy’s K is trapped, and we
lose the first two club tricks. The
defenders then switch to a diamond,
and we win the A. We still have two
diamond losers, so our only hope is
to establish an extra heart winner on
which to discard one of them.
The A and J are our only en-
tries outside the heart suit, so we
need to make good use of them. We
can draw one round of trumps with
the K, but then we must stop and
go to work on the heart suit.
We take the K and the A, and
then lead a low heart and trump it.
Again, we don’t want to be overruffed,
so we trump with the 10. If the
defenders’ hearts were divided 3–3,
dummy’s remaining hearts would both
be winners, and we could draw the rest
of the trumps and make an overtrick.
However, West shows out on the
third round of hearts, so we have more
work to do. We play a low spade to
dummy’s J, and lead another heart.
Again, we ruff high, with the Q,
to avoid being overruffed. Finally, we
lead another spade to dummy’s A,
drawing West’s last trump. We play
dummy’s last heart and discard one
of our diamond losers. We still have
to lose a diamond trick, but that’s all.
On this last deal, we are again in
4 after the following auction:
WEST N ORTH EAST SOUTH
1
Pass 2 Pass 2
Pass 4 All Pass
West leads the Q, and we lose the
first two diamonds tricks. We have a
potential heart loser as well as two
club losers, so we once again need to
work on establishing the heart suit.
After winning the A, we can play
one high spade from our hand, but
must then try the heart finesse by
leading a low heart to dummy’s Q.
When the Q wins, we’re part way
there. We play the A, and lead a
low heart. We ruff with one of our
high spades. Then a low spade to
dummy’s 10, and we lead a fourth
round of hearts. Again, we trump
with a high spade. Finally, a low
spade to dummy’s K, drawing
West’s outstanding trump. Now we
take the established heart winner and
discard one of our club losers.
Deals like these are challenging. If
we want to establish a long suit with
the help of our trumps, we must plan
ahead. We need to use entries wisely;
often they will be in the trump suit
itself. We must watch to see how the
suit divides, and avoid getting over-
ruffed by a defender. But if we can
master the technique, we’ll make a
lot more contracts!
A J 5
A 7 5 3 2
9 5 2
K 6
9 7 2 4
J 6 Q 10 9 8
K 7 6 Q J 10 3
Q J 10 7 5 A 8 3 2
K Q 10 8 6 3
K 4
A 8 4
9 4
N
W E
S
Contract:
4
K 8 5
K Q 5 4 3
8 5 2
A 6
10 9 6 2
9 7 J 10 8 6
K Q 10 6 J 7 3
K Q 10 5 9 8 7 4 2
A Q J 7 4 3
A 2
A 9 4
J 3
N
W E
S
Contract:
6
K 10 6
A Q 5 4 2
K 6
9 5 2
9 8 5 2
K8 J 10 9 7
Q J 10 8 A 7 5 3 2
J 8 6 4 K Q 10
A Q J 7 4 3
6 3
9 4
A 7 3
N
W E
S
Contract:
4