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LHO leads the ♦K, which wins. She now leads her ♦Q, which you ruff in your hand. What’s your plan and what card do you play next?
While you are thinking about that, let me give you a different hand for comparison. I am in a Swiss team match at the Raleigh Sectional last month. I find myself in 6♠ against the lead of the ♦9. Here’s the deal:
--------------------♠K63 ♥7 ♦A108 ♣AQJ1092
----♠J2 ♥KQ87642 ♦973 ♣3-------♠1094 ♥A ♦QJ52 ♣87654
--------------------♠AQ875 ♥J1093 ♦K64 ♣K
If spades break 3-2, and they were, the play is straightforward. I win the ♦K in hand, draw trumps immediately, in three rounds, cash the ♣K. Lead up to Dummy’s ♦A and run his 5 clubs for all 13 tricks.
Now, back to our deal of the week and my two questions: What’s your plan and what card do you play next? Your plan needs two parts:
- How do I go about drawing trumps?
- Which long suit will I set up to run, dummy’s hearts or my clubs?
Let’s look at which long suit to set up. Setting up the heart suit is tempting as it has only one potential loser, the ♥K. If the ♥K is with East you can ruff it out. If the ♥K is with West you lose 3 tricks (1 spade, 1 heart, 1 diamond).
Setting up the club suit requires ruffing twice in Dummy to protect against a 4-2 break, with the Q heading the 4-card holding. Moreover, if you start in on ruffing the club suit, you are in your hand already, requiring one less entry to set it up than to set up the heart suit.
Turning to trumps, I intentionally phrased the first question poorly in an effort to avoid giving away the answer. The actual question should be: When do you draw trumps? If your plan is to do as I did in the second deal above, namely, start drawing trumps right away, you are mistaken. You should set about setting up your club suit immediately. On this particular deal, you can draw trumps as part of setting up clubs.
Lead a low club from your hand, ruff low in Dummy, lead a low spade from dummy and if the ♠A is not played by your RHO, play your K. If that holds, lead another low club from your hand and ruff with the ♠10.
Why, with the second hand, do I draw trumps immediately, where with the first hand I do not? If you have a long suit that is already set up, like the club holding of the second deal, then you should draw trumps immediately. But if your long suit is like the club suit of the first deal, you need to set it up before you draw trumps completely. Indeed, setting up the side suit may even involve letting them ruff it because you haven’t finished drawing trumps. Today’s deal does not illustrate that. In fact, today’s deal is easy because Declarer did not get a 3-1 spade break, much less a 4-0 break.
As for ruffing immediately, if you cash the ♣A and K first, and there is a 4-2 club break, you are in danger of an overruff by the opponents. In fact, if LHO has the ♠97 and she ruffs twice, she will promote a defensive trick for herself. Ruffing immediately allows you to ruff low the first time.
In today’s deal, Declarer only came to 10 tricks because she decided to set up Dummy’s hearts rather than her clubs. If she sets up her clubs from the start, she’ll come to 11 tricks.
When you have a side suit to set it up, set it up early. Shel Silverstein had a wonderful children’s poem that our family loved:
-----If you are a bird, be an early bird,
-----But if you are a worm, sleep late.
Be the bird at the bridge table: set up your long side suit early.
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