BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

SOuTH is declarer in 6 ♣ . West leads the ♣ 9. Assuming trumps break 3-2, how should South plan the play? COUNT losers to start with. If south makes the mistake of drawing all the trumps and then finds that diamonds break 4-1, he will be left with a losing diamond and a losing spade for one down. West should win the first trump lead and then cash one more high trump only. he should then tackle diamonds.

If both defenders follow to three rounds, there will only be one possible loser left. If one defender is short in diamonds and has the last outstanding trump, he will get in a ruff with it. Unless east started with ♦ J-10-x-x, declarer can discard dummy’s spade loser.