From                  13th September, 2006, Board 32  

                                          Theme                Timing

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          Dlr South           N-S Vul                 Hands Rotated

                                                                                                   for Convenience

West leads the 7 of trumps, East following with the 9.  Plan the play.

If trumps are 2-2, you'll have 12 easy tricks, but if they are 3-1, you'll have to get either 3 Hearts ruffs in hand or two Diamond ruffs on the board.  This will have to be done while there is still an enemy trump at large, and as our trump spots are inadequate there is the danger of getting overruffed.  Which is safer?  Ruffing the Hearts or ruffing the Diamonds?  And what is the correct sequence of plays?

SOLUTION

After winning the opening trump lead with the Ace, you must lose a Heart immediately, it wouldn't do to draw a second round of trumps, lose the A♥ and have them draw a third round.  And, which red suit is safer for our ruffs?  Hearts are marginally safer (you only have 5 of them, overruffs are less likely), but it's really a trick question, which suit is safer depends entirely on which opponents has the remaining trump.  So the line of play should be:

         Win the opening lead with the Ace

         Lose the K♥ to East

         Win the Diamond return

         Cross to the K♠, East pitching a Heart

Now, with West having the final trump, you want to get your ruffs in Dummy, over the enemy trump.  So the play continues:

         Cash the top Diamonds

         Cross to the A♣

         Ruff a Diamond

         Cross to the K♣

         Ruff a Diamond

         Ruff a Heart

         Draw the last trump and claim.

	♠ KJ63 ♥ T875 ♦ AK ♣ Q76
♠ T87 ♥ 96 ♦ QT964 ♣ T53	North    West          East            South	♠ 9 ♥ AQJ432 ♦ 82 ♣ J842
	♠ AQ542 ♥ K ♦ J753 ♣ AK9

Keys to Success

   - Losing a Heart at Trick Two to avoid the possibility of a third round of trumps from the opponents

     (as luck would have it, the hand with the A♥ does not have the outstanding trump)

   - Making sure that, after two rounds of trumps, there was one high trump in each hand

   - Taking the ruffs in the hand sitting over the outstanding enemy trump.