From                   28th February, 2007, Board 25

                                          Theme                Trump Control

                                          Difficulty            * * * 

                                          Dlr North           E-W Vul

West leads the K♣, and continues with a Club to the Queen and Ace, which you ruff.  Clearly, you have to get the Hearts going while still retaining trump control.  What is the best sequence of plays?

The simple approach would be to draw two rounds of trumps (let’s suppose that they are 3-1) and take the ruffing finesse in Hearts.  If that loses, they’ll no doubt lead a Diamond forcing you to ruff in your hand.  Now, you’ll play out your Hearts, and if the Ten does not drop in three rounds, you’ll have to ruff a Heart on the board.  Now, you are short one entry back to your hand and will be unable to enjoy the established Hearts.

Can you do better than that?

SOLUTION

Sure you can!  It was a mistake to draw two rounds of trumps.  Instead, draw just one round, leaving the other high trump for a later entry back to your hand.  This is how the play will go:

            West leads the K♣

            Second Club is ruffed

            Cash A♠

            K♥ is run around to East’s Ace

            Diamond return is ruffed

            Heart ruff

            Spade back to our hand

            Run the Hearts

The defense can take their trump whenever they like, but all they will score will be a Spade, a Heart and a Club.  Making 10 tricks.

Key to Success

   - As usual, when trump control is a factor, the winning line is to go after the side-suit early.