Leading an unsupported ace is generally a poor lead. In this case, though, LHO only had even poorer leads he could have made. True, if he guessed to lead the ♥J he would have come up smelling like roses. Here leading the ♣A sets up Dummy’s ♣K, though it is true that Declarer could do that himself. What Declarer could not do is turn the ♣K into a second entry to Dummy; only the opponents could do that for him.
LHO continues with ♣2 which Declarer wins in Dummy, pitching a low spade, eliminating his spade loser. Revising his count of his losers, Declarer has possibly two in diamonds—on a bad day—which means that he only has a total of 3 losers and his contract seems safe.
Back to the play, Declarer is in Dummy. What is his next play? You may think it is to draw trump, expecting a 2-2 or 3-1 break, and then decide how you will play diamonds. That is a poor line of play.
While it seems, without knowing the opponents’ cards like you and I do, that drawing trump is the next thing to do, you should go to work on diamonds instead. Why? Because you are in Dummy for the next to the last time—Dummy’s ♠A will be your last entry to Dummy. With so few entries, you need to decide what is the most important thing to do while there.
Back in the early 1990’s, I read Bill Root’s book on Declarer play called How to Play a Bridge Hand (1990). His introductory chapter was on counting your tricks. The next chapter was how to play 55 different card combinations. The next two chapters were on “communication.”
That shocked me. That’s not how I would write a book on Declarer play. Mind you, at the time I read the book, I did not know enough to write a book on Declarer play. But what I did know did not make communication the third topic to discuss when teaching about Declarer play. As you can see, that book stuck with me for a long, long time.
One of the principles it opened my eyes to is that when I am in Dummy, with limited communication, I have to take advantage of the opportunity. On this deal, Declarer will only be in Dummy twice so he must use those entries wisely.
While in Dummy, Declarer should decide to go to work on diamonds. It is important to note how good the diamonds are between the two hands. I observed earlier that on a bad day Declarer will lose at most 2 diamond tricks because his spot cards in diamonds are so good. One way to play diamonds is to lead one round of trumps, winning is his hand (of course) and then leading the ♦10. If LHO has the ♦K, and plays it immediately, you can then win whatever lead he makes next. Draw trumps in two or three rounds (hopefully) and make your contract.
But coming back to your hand and leading up to the ♦Q is not the best line. There is a play that gives you roughly a 75% chance of winning 3 diamond tricks: lead the ♦Q immediately. Why is it a 75% play? Because either the K or the J will be with RHO 50% of the time and an additional 25% of the time both of them will be there. If the ♦Q loses, you plan to return to dummy with the SA so that you can take a 2nd finesse against the ♦J.
So, after winning the ♣K, the best line of play is to lead the ♦Q. When you do that, it loses to LHO’s ♦K. Let’s say he returns a safe club, as good a defense as there is. Declarer ruffs the club in his hand. Now it is time to go to work on drawing trump, so you lead the ♥A.
Bad news!!!! Hearts are 4-0 and so your LHO always has a heart trick coming to him! That increases your possible number of losers to 4—1 heart, 2 diamonds and 1 club.
Here is the tricky part. Stop drawing trump immediately; it is not essential to stop immediately, but it is best technique. You can, in fact, draw a second round of trumps, but you must not draw a third round. You have to keep one trump in Dummy, as you will soon see why.
Hoping that LHO had at least 2 diamonds without the ♦J, lead a spade to Dummy’s ♠A. Next lead Dummy’s low diamond and finesse, playing a “low” diamond. (If RHO foolishly played the ♦J, you’d cover it.)
When that finesse wins, lead a diamond to ruff in Dummy. LHO can ruff in front of Dummy, but only with the ♥J or ♥10, his natural heart trick. Assume he does so. (It does not matter if he does or not; his last defensive trick will be a heart whether he ruffs or not.)
Win whatever your LHO exits with, finish drawing his last two trumps. Your ♦A and remaining hearts are all good. Making 10 tricks.
The important points which the deal illustrates are these:
- If you have limited entries to Dummy, use them wisely;
- There are times, indeed, more than a few, when it is important to go to work on a side suit before drawing trumps;
- With the bad trump break, making the opponent with the long trumps ruff a loser of yours, is a loser-on-a-loser play, condensing 2 losers into 1.
That may seem complicated, but it is not. It simply requires playing the different suits at the right time. To master that, re-playing this deal a few times will make it second nature. Or so I hope.
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