From                  26th July, 2006, Board 9

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr North          E-W Vul
 

♠ ♥ AKJ94 ♦ QJ84 ♣ AJT6	North    Dummy      East             South	♠ 9743 ♥ 85 ♦ AKT732 ♣ 3
West    North   East    South                          Pass    2♦        4♦              6♦        Pass    Pass    Pass

South's 4♦ showed Spades and Clubs.  South's opening lead is the K♠.

You possibly have 13 tricks here ... 3 side-suit tricks and a cross-ruff for 10 more tricks.  Before embarking on a cross-ruff, it is generally advisable to cash the side-suit winners first ... is that a good plan on this hand?

SOLUTION

The bidding warns us that South does not have many red cards.  If one of our Heart winners were to get ruffed, that would reduce our trick total to 12 ... and, if South were then to return a trump, that would further reduce the total to 11, with no possibility of a 12th.  The key to success is to lead Hearts towards Dummy ... that way, if South ruffs, she does not deprive us of a side-suit winner, though, if she then returns a trump, she can hold us to 12 tricks.  This is the distribution that we are trying to overcome:

	♠ AT5 ♥ QT7632 ♦ 9 ♣ 752
♠ ♥ AKJ94 ♦ QJ84 ♣ AJT6	North    Dummy      East            South	♠ 9743 ♥ 85 ♦ AKT732 ♣ 3
	♠ KQJ862 ♥ ♦ 65 ♣ KQ984

The winning line is to ruff the opening lead, cash A♣, ruff a Club, and lead a Heart.  South can ruff and return a trump, but it's still 12 tricks for Declarer.

Yes, we have tweaked the hand.  In actual play, South's distribution was 6-1-1-5, and Declarer could have got away with the incorrect play of cashing the A♥ at Trick 2.

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