BOBBY WOLFF
“As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was about to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything.”
— A.A. Milne
This week, we will be focusing on subtle suit combinations. Knowing how to play certain suits in isolation is only half the battle, though. Being able to make the best play in the context of the whole hand is key.
South took a unilateral shot when he jumped to four hearts. West licked his lips and doubled, then led the spade queen. Declarer could see three likely top losers in trumps. In order to avoid a fourth, he needed some luck in hearts. Hoping to prevent the defenders from scoring a spade ruff with a high trump, declarer crossed to hand with a diamond at trick two, after winning the spade ace. This was relatively safe because if diamonds were 3-1, the defense could probably arrange a ruff in their own time. Declarer next led the heart queen from hand. This gave him an extra chance in addition to 3-3 hearts — that of finding a defender with the doubleton nine. Any honordoubleton holding without the nine would not help.
West took the first trump and continued spades. South ruffed and led the heart 10, crushing the nine. West pressed on with another spade; declarer ruffed and continued with the heart seven. West won and put a fourth spade on the table, but declarer ruffed again, cashed the heart eight, felling the six, then claimed the rest.
Ruffing a black suit to hand at trick two would have given West trump control, as declarer eventually would have been forced to ruff four times.
ANSWER: You should try to establish tricks for partner in the minors, but which one? It may be best to take the heart king first, retaining the lead to switch through dummy at trick two. You might not get in again, after all, and hopefully you will know what to do after a look at dummy. Note: Partner might have bid a minor at his second turn if he had known what the best defense was.