PDF File - Better Bridge

Turn the diamonds and clubs in theNorth-South hands face down.Q. What does declarer have to do beforetrumping a heart in dummy?A. Give up a heart trick.• Declarer has to give up a heart trick tomake dummy void in hearts before a heartcan be trumped – ruffed – in dummy• This is part of the third stage of Declarer’sPlan, Consider the Order.WESTNORTH (Declarer)♠ A Q 10 9 7♥ 8 6 3EASTSOUTH (Dummy)♠ K J 8 6 3♥ 9• Sometimes declarer won’t have to do that since the defenders may take their winner inthe suit early in the play.Turn North’s ♥3 and South’s ♥9 face down.Q. Once dummy is void in hearts, is there anything else declarer must be careful aboutwhen considering the order?A. Leaving trumps in dummy; being in the right place at the right time.• Declarer has to make sure there are enough trumps left in dummy to ruff the hearts.• So, declarer can’t afford to take all the spade winners right away.• On this deal, declarer can afford to draw the defenders trumps but must then leave at leasttwo spades in dummy to ruff two hearts.• Also, declarer must be in the right place at the right time to trump a heart. Declarer has tolead a heart from the North hand and trump it in dummy.• Declarer will then have to get back to the North hand to lead the remaining heart andtrump it in dummy.• On this deal, that won’t be much of a challenge. North can use the spade suit as an entry,or perhaps one of the established diamond winners, or trump one of dummy’s clubs.Turn all the North and South cards face up.Q. How many tricks does declarer have in total?A. Nine.• Declarer has five spade winners and can promote two diamond winners and trump twohearts in dummy.• Looked at another way, East-West will get a heart trick, a diamond trick, and two clubtricks to defeat the 4♠ contract one trick.Q. Is being defeated one trick in a 4♠ contract a poor result for North-South?A. Not necessarily.• If East-West can make something, the penalty for being defeated in 4♠ may be less thanthe value of East-West’s potential contract.• Let’s see what East and West can make.92