ZERO, ONE, TWO OR THREE ROUNDS?

Les Dawson, an Englishman whose profession you will soon divine, said, "My mother-in-law has come round to our house at Christmas seven years running. This year, we're having a change. We're going to let her in."

When you are in a trump suit, the number of rounds of that suit you play may determine whether the door opens -- you make the contract -- or stays closed -- you go down.

South is in four hearts. West leads the spade queen, which wins the trick, and continues with the spade 10. After declarer ruffs that, how many rounds of trumps should he immediately draw: zero, one, two or three?

When North rebid one notrump, South just went with the known eight- or nine-card heart fit. (North would not have bid notrump with a singleton heart. With, for example, 3-1-5-4 distribution, he would have rebid two clubs.) In this deal, a raise to three no-trump would have worked fine too, but that was far from obvious with the singleton spade. Declarer might concede four tricks: one spade, one diamond and two clubs. He must eliminate a club loser. One chance is to find the suit splitting 3-3, but that happens only one time in three. If the clubs are 4-2, South has to ruff his last club on the board. Since this requires only one trump, some players would think that they could afford to draw two rounds of trumps -- but not here. When East wins a club trick, he leads his last trump to kill the ruff.

Declarer should draw one round of trumps, then play three rounds of clubs.