BRIDGE Trump management

The question of when to draw trump, and how many rounds to draw, is the central issue in many hands.

Take this deal where West leads a heart against six spades. South wins with the ace, and if he draws three rounds of trump, he goes down one, losing a heart and a diamond. By drawing all the missing trumps immediately, declarer more or less banks his hopes on a 3-3 diamond division. Since the odds on this are almost 2-1 against, South should search for greener pastures.

He can increase his chances substantially by drawing only two rounds of trump with the A-K. He then leads a diamond to the king, a diamond back to the ace, a club to the ace and another diamond toward the Q-7.

In the actual deal, as well as against several other possible distributions, the defense is rendered helpless by this succession of plays. What can East do when the eight of diamonds is led from dummy? If he ruffs, declarer follows low and later discards a heart from dummy on the queen of diamonds. He eventually ruffs his losing heart in dummy, so the only trick he loses is East’s diamond ruff.

If East does not trump the eight of diamonds, South wins with the queen and ruffs the diamond seven in dummy with the jack of spades. The only trick declarer loses against this defense is a heart.

From the outset, South aims to extract every ounce of mileage out of his trumps. Two rounds of trump are exactly the right number to draw before starting the diamonds. The suggested method of play is by no means guaranteed to win, but it gives declarer a much better chance of making the slam.

Tomorrow: Bidding quiz.