From                 17th January, 2007

                                          Themes             Trump Control

                                                                    Blocking & Unblocking

                                          Difficulty           * * * *

                                          Dlr South           Both Vul             Hands Rotated

                                                                                                 for Convenience

The defense starts with the A♣, then a Club to North’s King.

Your light opening has stolen the pot, but only at the price of playing in the 7-card fit instead of the 9-card Hearts.  How do you retain trump control in the face of the Club attack?

SOLUTION

As so often occurs when trump control is an issue, the winning line is to set up the side-suit before drawing trumps.  So, ruff the second round of Clubs, play A♥ and a low Heart towards the board.  Hopefully they will split 2-2, otherwise you are sunk.  In with their Heart trick, the defense continues with Clubs, and instead of ruffing, pitch a Heart (it does not help to pitch a Diamond, you don’t want to ruff that suit either).  Now, if the defense persists with Clubs you can handle the force by ruffing in Dummy.

	♠ J2 ♥ Q64 ♦ KJ642 ♣ J97
♠ 864 ♥ K3 ♦ QT9 ♣ AQT43	North    West          East            South	♠ AT5 ♥ J7 ♦ A873 ♣ K862
	♠ KQ973 ♥ AT9852 ♦ 5 ♣ 5

After winning the Heart, and cashing the third round of Clubs (Declarer declining to ruff), the may shift to a Diamond.  Now, Declarer guesses correctly to play the Jack (West has already shown up with 9 points, he probably does not have the A♦ also), won by East’s Ace.  Then the defense reverts to Clubs, ruffed in the Dummy with the Jack!  Now, Declarer plays a Spade and finesses the Ten, after which 8 tricks are made when the Spades break 3-3.  Phew!

Key to Success

   - Playing on Hearts before touching trumps

   - Declining to ruff the 3rd round of Clubs

   - Counting West's HCP's and guessing the Diamonds accordingly

   - Ruffing the 4th round of Clubs high in Dummy and then finessing the trump Ten

Postscript

This hand required a large slice of luck (2-2 Hearts, 3-3 Spades, Spade Ten onside, Diamond guess) but it also required fine play by Declarer.  Note especially the high Club ruff in Dummy, and the subsequent trump finesse of the Ten, the only way to unblock the suit.