BRIDGE

. Whenever declarer is playing in a suit contract, he invariably has to decide whether it is better to draw any, all or only some of the opponents’ trumps. Unfortunately, there is no magic answer to this question. In the final analysis, the best way of deciding whether or not to draw trumps is to count either losers or winners. For example, consider this

deal from a small duplicate game where all three declarers got to four hearts. At the first table, declarer ruffed the third round of diamonds and drew three rounds of trumps. He then played the A-K and another spade, hoping the opposing spades were divided 3-3. But when East won the third spade with the ten and cashed the jack, South found himself down one. At the second table, declarer saw what might happen if the spades did not divide evenly, and he attempted to protect himself. After ruffing the third diamond, he drew only two rounds of trumps with the AK, then played the A-K and another spade. He was hoping to ruff his fourth spade with dummy’s queen of hearts if the spades did not break 3-3, but East won with the ten and returned a trump. As before, South could not avoid losing another spade and he too finished down one. At the third table, South found by far the best approach. After ruffing the third diamond, he cashed only one trump — the ace — and then played three rounds of spades. If the spades turned out to be divided 3-3, he would be home free, but even if they broke 4-2, the defence would be helpless. In practice, East returned a trump, but South won in his hand, ruffed the spade seven with the heart queen and eas- ily scored the rest of the tricks to make his contract.