This Week At North Penn

Mon, noon

Tue, 10a

Wed, 9:30a

Wed, noon

Thu, 11:45a

Thu, noon

Fri, 10a

Sat, 10a

Open

0-1500

Bid & Play

Open

0-199

Open

0-750

0-99

Lunch at 11:15, game at 11:45

Lunch at 11:15, game at noon



Upcoming Special Events

STaC Week

Handicap Swiss Teams

4 Is Enough

0-199

0-750 Swiss Teams

Evening Pizza

Week of 2/2 through 2/7

Thursday, 2/5

Wednesday, 2/11

Thursday, 2/12 (lunch at 11:15, game at 11:45)

Friday, 2/13

Friday, 2/27 (pizza at 6:00, game at 6:30)

Bid & Play

This week Mitch will talk about "getting your partner involved in the auction." He will be joined by Jeff.

Education

Joann Glasson's February Zoom class will be held on Monday, February 9 & 16 at 10:00 a.m. See flyer for details.

Deal Analysis

by Bucky Sydnor

(sydnoriv@yahoo.com)

Creating Tricks In the Trump Suit

I don’t remember when I first heard the expression “Bridge players are in the business of creating tricks,” but it struck me like a bolt of lightning. It is so true, and obvious for that matter! Starting with one of the simplest forms of trick creation, the finesse, to such tactics as the end play or a squeeze, we are trying to create tricks as declarer. Defense is the same: from giving partner a ruff to getting a trump promotion, we are trying to create tricks. Unless Declarer has 13 running tricks, he may need to create some additional tricks. Of course, if declarer is missing the Ace of trump, for example, and nothing else, there is no need to create tricks. There are other examples, as well, where declarer does not need to create tricks. But frequently both declarers and defenders are trying to create tricks.

Looking at this issue from Declarer’s point of view, one source of extra tricks is the trump suit. But it is easy to get confused about this. Not all ruffs with your trump suit create tricks. Take, for instance, this trump holding:

AKQJ10         987

Declarer has 5 certain trump tricks. Drawing trumps and then ruffing Dummy’s losers with the rest—ruffing in the “long hand,” as the hand with the most trumps is called—does not change that. But if Declarer can ruff in the short hand, then he has increased the number of trump tricks. If he can ruff once in Dummy, he would have 6 trump tricks; if twice, he would have 7. In this example, Declarer and Dummy have only high trumps so Dummy cannot be overruffed; each ruff in the short hand increases the trick count in the trump suit.

Simply ruffing does not create tricks; it is ruffing in the short hand that does so. (The one exception is the dummy reversal.)

In today’s deal, East was Declarer in a 4♦ contract (deal not rotated).

Declarer won South’s opening lead of the ♠5, crossed to Dummy with a low diamond to the ♦J, ruffed a spade, went back to Dummy’s ♦10, and ruffed Dummy’s last spade.

While Declarer had completely ruffed all of Dummy’s losing spades, he had not created a single extra trick! He was always getting 6 diamond tricks because that is how many he had in his hand, the long hand, from the outset. Moreover, he had squandered valuable entries to Dummy. Creating tricks on this deal does not involve the spade suit.

Marc Smith recently noted in his Bridge Bulletin column (Sept 2025, p. 46)—a very good column on Declarer play for newer players even if Marc assumes they know more than they do on occasion—that in a suit contract we usually count losers and when doing so, one should count the losers in the long hand. Doing that here, Declarer has 3 or 4 heart losers, depending on the location of the ♥A.

Declarer would love to create extra tricks by ruffing two hearts in Dummy with the valuable ♦J and ♦10, which cannot be overruffed by the opponents. But if the defenders are alert, they will lead diamonds every time they win a heart trick to cut down on the number of ruffs Declarer can get in the short hand.

Declarer already has 9 tricks coming to him—♠A, no hearts, 6 diamonds and 2 clubs. To get more he needs to work on taking care of his 4 potential heart losers. The best way to do this is to go to Dummy and lead up to the ♥K. If the ♥A is onside, as it is here, Declarer wins 12 tricks, as he will be able to ruff his 3^rd and 4^th hearts in Dummy. What he needs to do, after winning the ♠A, is to cross to Dummy with a club to the ace, preserving Dummy’s valuable trumps. Then he comes off Dummy with a low heart. If N ducks, as is good technique, Declarer goes up with his ♥K. Here is the layout at that point:

Declarer now leads a heart from his hand, which loses, of course, but regardless of what the defense does, he has the rest of the tricks. He wins whatever is led—a diamond is good technique but it makes no difference—and ruffs his remaining two hearts with Dummy’s high diamonds, using the spade suit as the way back to his hand.

If N grabs his ♥A immediately Declarer leads a heart from Dummy, then that is Declarer’s only loser, for he wins whatever is led and plays as above.



Meanwhile, if the ♥A is offside, then Declarer needs to use another technique to develop an eleventh trick, as he cannot avoid losing two hearts after he attacks hearts early. We will look at that the next time I write.

But for now, when trying to create tricks in the trump suit, remember:

Don’t get distracted by irrelevant ruffs in the long hand. Just because you can ruff a suit in the long hand, don’t be misled. If it doesn’t contribute to doing well on the overall deal, it is a distraction. Indeed, it is a dangerous distraction away from a better line of play. If you want to create additional trump tricks, ruffs in the short hand will help you strike gold.

Post-mortem for Bidders:

For an exercise in bidding, try to determine how E and W should bid to reach 3NT if their opponents make the same interfering spade bids.

Ask the Expert



Email your questions, or a pesky hand, or something you’d like to know about bidding or playing to Toysie Walker. She will forward them to the panel, one will be chosen, and the question and answers will be printed in the following week’s newsletter.

January Birthdays

Gina Bresler

Emily David

Lori Flynn

Jeanne Harrington

Mary McGready

Lisa Mita

Susan Morse

Dennis O'Brien

Priscilla O'Connor

Carol Roden

Christine Sgro

Robert Tuteur