BRIDGE

Frequently a thorny issue: when to draw trumps? How many rounds to play?

This deal also features a bidding question: after East-West had found their spade fit and stopped at the two-level, should South stick his oar in the water by balancing? And if he does decide to take action, should he bid his “long” suit or double?

Schooled in the concept that when the opponents have a “fit and quit” the other side will also have a fit and usually enough highcard points to compete, South decided to enter the fray.

But for North-South’s best fit there was a threeway tie: for all suits outside spades,North-South had a combined seven cards in each so there was no better fit available than the club fit South landed in with his bid.

In one regard, South’s bold choice of action did indeed locate his side’s best strain to play in as a spade ruff in the shorter trump hand was available.

And declarer went right after that trick by ducking the spade lead, winning the continuation and ruffing his last spade in the dummy.

No great use for the rest of dummy’s trumps so declarer deemed it time to “get the kiddies off the street”. Good idea but how to draw trumps and how many rounds to play?

South chose the startand-stop approach: King of clubs and a second round ducked to West. Not the best strategy as South was soon to discover.

Three rounds of diamonds ending in East for a spade return that promoted a second trump trick for West, a trick not available if South had played three (daring) rounds of clubs.