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Drawing Trumps or Not?
Sometimes the route to success is to postpone the drawing of trumps, perhaps for the purpose of setting up a side-suit (see also Trump Control). Other times the postponement is for the purpose of maintaining communications.
Related Play Problems Play Problem 15
Related Extracts from Past Wednesday Games
E-W have a Reverse Drury auction getting to 4♠.
North has a pretty obvious ♥Q opening lead after which Declarer will make 9 or 11 tricks, and nothing in between. Declarer wins this and must guess who has the ♠Q. There won’t be any clues, so the natural way to play the suit is to lead to the ♠K and finesse against South … this is preferable to finessing the other way because it allows Qxxx in the South hand to be picked up. But, alas, the ♠Q wins a trick and the defense cashes out for down one.
A hyper-active South might have doubled the Drury bid for a Club lead. Not a good idea! If that 2♣ had been bid in a Stayman auction then perhaps a Double would have some merit because there is a chance that the opponents will play in 3NT and that a Club lead will be helpful. But here E-W are destined to play in Spades and it’s far from obvious that a Club lead is required, added to which the information imparted by the Double may well help Declarer.
If South does make that foolish Double then North will dutifully lead a low Club, and it won’t be obvious that South should shift to a low Heart. Looking at those dangerous Diamonds she may well continue Clubs, for fear that Declarer can draw trumps and pitch a Club loser on the Diamonds. So South returns a Club to North who now has an obvious Heart shift. Now, after taking the ♥A, Declarer has two lines of play: - Either, guess the trumps and pray for 3-2 Diamonds (11 tricks if both suits come in, only 9 if either one doesn’t). - Or, postpone trumps, and instead cash ♦K, ♦A, pitch a Diamond on Dummy’s ♣J, and lead the ♦Q. On the actual hand it is South who has the short Diamonds and whether she ruffs that trick or not Declarer has 10 tricks without even guessing the ♠Q. And if North is the one with two Diamonds? Then Declarer is down one. We like the second line, all the more so as it is the one that actually works.
A lively auction! South decided that her hand was worth a limit raise in Spades … it’s only 9 points but a couple of Aces and a good 5-card suit must count for something. Being a passed hand, South showed that limit raise with a Drury bid of 2♣. Now over to West. He had cleverly noticed the favorable vulnerability and decided that he would unilaterally sacrifice if N-S got to game. So, he bid 2♦ and then 4♠ offering Partner a choice, and West finally got his wish, playing in 5♦ doubled. That is down two unless North finds the dynamic opening lead of the Q♣, allowing the defense to get a Club ruff for down three.
But, either way, 5♦ doubled is an excellent sacrifice as N-S have 12 tricks in Hearts. Should North have pushed on to 5♥? Probably. Surely South has some Club length and strength on this auction, which will no doubt allow North’s third Spade to be dumped. And if there are any major suit finesses to be taken they are likely to work. So, not bidding 5♥ seems rather feeble to us, but bidding up to 6♥ would have been wildly optimistic.
We said that N-S can make 12 tricks in Hearts and so they can. Here is the sequence of plays: A♦ is cashed Diamond continuation is ruffed T♥ holds the next trick Q♣ covered by the King and Dummy’s Ace J♣ is cashed Club ruff Cross to Dummy’s 9♥ Club ruff Cross to Dummy’s A♥ Cash the last Club Spade finesse There were a couple of subtleties in this play. Firstly, Declarer cunningly led the T♥ on the first round of trumps as she did not want East to cover. That kept her in her hand and gave her the entries to set up the Clubs … if they had now been 3-3 she would not have needed the Spade finesse. Secondly, she played on Clubs early, while trumps were still available for entries to the Dummy. Of course, it would have been too dangerous to play the Q♣ at Trick 3, West might have been 5=2=6=0 instead of 5=0=6=2.
The contract is 5♠ and you are defending in the East position. Are you in the mood for something brilliant? Heart lead ruffed by Declarer Cash ♠A and ♠K Cross to the ♠Q Low Diamond, East playing the Queen, Declarer winning the Ace Low Diamond to Dummy’s Ten and East fiendishly ducks! Declarer has been careless with her entries and, as a result, that fine ducking play by East has shut out the Diamonds. Declarer has only one entry back to hand and is unable to knock out East’s Diamond honor and then get back to enjoy the good Diamonds. But, as it happens, Declarer wriggles out by ruffing a Heart, and playing on Clubs. The remarkably fortunate situation in that suit allows her to end up with 5 trumps, 2 Heart ruffs, 2 Diamond and 2 Clubs. Her only losers are a Club and a Heart.
But after the opening Heart lead, Declarer did not have to rely on mega-luck in Clubs to make eleven tricks. With better timing she could have made twelve tricks, with no luck in Clubs required! Heart lead ruffed by Declarer Cash ♠A Cross to the ♠Q Low Diamond, East playing the Queen, Declarer winning the Ace Yes, it’s the same line as before, except that Declarer delayed drawing that third round of trumps, keeping a high Spade in her hand as an extra entry, and forestalling East’s crafty Diamond duck. This line brings home 12 tricks … it takes an opening Club lead to hold Declarer to 11 tricks.
Obligatory False Card In the first line of play, where Declarer erred by drawing the third round of trumps prematurely, she was forced to use the last entry in her hand to play on Clubs. The suit will only be good for two tricks if West holds a doubleton KQ, KT or QT. Declarer’s luck is in this time, but a wily West will play the ♣Q on the first round! A gullible Declarer, when playing to the second round, will now have to guess whether West started with QT or KQ. But if West plays the Ten on the first round there is no guess. Declarer should figure it out anyway (East needs the ♣K for his opening bid), but that’s no excuse for East not to put Declarer to the test!
Assume that South leads the J♠. Declarer can count 4 side-suit tricks, with no prospect of more, and so must come to 6 trump tricks. That’s easy enough if trumps are 3-2, just one ruff is required on the board. But why not try for two ruffs on the board, making 10 tricks even with a bad trump break, and 11 if trumps behave? Here’s how Declarer might play the hand: J♠ lead won by Dummy’s Ace K♣ won by South’s Ace Spade ruffed by Declarer Q♣ and J♣ pitching two Diamonds from Dummy Club won by South, Dummy pitching a Diamond Spade ruffed by Declarer A♦ and then a Diamond ruff Heart to the Ace Now, Declarer leads his last Diamond. South is down to nothing but trumps, so is obliged to use her trump winner to ruff Declarer’s Diamond loser. Making 10 tricks despite the bad trump break. The key plays by Declarer were: - not drawing trumps, with the hope of getting two ruffs on the board. - playing the 4th round of Clubs and pitching a Diamond; this loser-on-loser play was an essential preparation for getting two ruffs on the board.
The slam that West probably thought would be a slam dunk when he was bidding the hand turns out to be somewhat hair-raising in the play of the hand, due to the 3-1 Spade break and the appalling absence of high (or even middling) Spades in the East hand. Let’s say that South leads a Club won by Declarer’s Ace. Now the slam can be made if Spades are 2-2 and Hearts no worse than 4-2. Alternatively, if Spades are 3-1, Declarer will need some luck in bringing home the Hearts. At Trick Two, Declarer plays a Heart to Dummy’s King and North’s Ace, and the Club return is ruffed on the board. Now what? Yes, a Heart ruff is next, followed by two rounds of trumps. When trumps turn out to be 3-1, Declarer could just draw the last trump, hoping that Hearts are 3-3. But he can do better than that! If Hearts are 3-3 then he can ruff a Heart without fear of being overruffed. What’s the point, you ask? Well, maybe (as on the actual hand) the Hearts are 4-2 but the hand with the last trump is also the hand with the 4th Heart. Nicely played for 12 tricks!
We must say that West showed admirable restraint in the above auction, and we expect that some of his counterparts will push on to 3♣. Here is how Declarer might wriggle out of 3♣ for down one: Defense cashes two Spades The third Spade is ruffed K♥ is won by North’s Ace Q♦ is won by Declarer’s Ace A second Diamond is cashed Q♥ is cashed Declarer exits a Heart North cashes a Diamond At this point Declarer has cleverly stripped his and Dummy’s hands down to nothing but trumps. Now, when North exits with a red card, Dummy will ruff with the Nine and Declarer will underruff, and that will be followed by the running of the J♣. Nicely wriggled for down only one! That line of play was somewhat obscure, a more obvious (and less successful) line of play is to play on Clubs immediately, hoping that trumps will provide two entries to the board for Heart leads towards the KQ.
The only way that the defense can ensure a two trick set is to refrain from playing that third round of Spades until the last moment, after all the red suit tricks have been played. This far from obvious defense ensures that Declarer will be forced to play the trump suit from his own hand.
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