BRIDGE

Since as little as the queen of diamonds opposite would give South a good play for game, he decided to bid 4S rather than 3S at his second turn. He no doubt regretted his decision when dummy went down with only one spade and a nine as the highest card.

How would you play the spade game when West launches the defence with the ace and king of hearts?

Suppose you ruff the second heart and draw trumps. That’s no good. Even if the trump suit splits 4-3, as you must hope, you would have no protection left in hearts when you knocked out the ace of clubs. Instead, you should knock out the ace of clubs immediately, hoping that the defenders cannot score a club ruff. When East takes the club ace, on the first or second round, he will play back another heart. Now is the moment for your second key move. You discard a diamond from your hand. Do you see the point of this?

Dummy now has no hearts left, so if the defenders persist with hearts, you will be able to ruff with dummy’s singleton eight of trumps. You can then return to your hand with the ace of diamonds to draw trumps with your A-K-Q-J. This is one of the most important techniques for preserving trump control. You use the shorter trump holding, in dummy, to protect you against a force in the defenders’ long suit.