Bridge

East-West game; dealer West

On today's hand, one West, holding a trump stack, cashed his outside aces, then sat back waiting for three more trump tricks. It didn' t workout like that.

Although West opened with One Club, it was South who ended in Three Clubs. West led the ace of hearts - his partner had bid the suit - then cashed the ace of diamonds and continued with another to the jack and queen.

Declarer played a spade to the ace, ruffed one, then cashed the ten of diamonds and ruffed the last with dummy' s seven of clubs. Another spade ruff was followed by a club to the king.

A heart was discarded on the established jack of spades, which West was forced to ruff. End-played, West could come to no more than one further trump trick.

At another table, and in the same contract, after cashing the ace of hearts, seeing the danger of diamond ruffs in dummy, West switched to a low trump.

Dummy's seven held, and after playing the ace and ruffing a spade, South led a diamond to West's ace, and another trump was promptly returned. In dummy for the last time, declarer ruffed another spade, but now there was no way he could make his contract, and ended two down.

As a general rule, it usually pays to cut down on potential ruffs, even when it looks as if your trumps are well placed, as being end-played with a trump stack is often inevitable.