Bridge Play

When someone asks me about when to draw trumps — and expresses some anxiety about leaving them undrawn — I offer this advice: “First things first, but not necessarily in that order.”

West leads the queen of hearts against today’s four spades, and South should start by counting possible losers. He has one in each side suit and maybe one in trumps. Say South wins the first heart in dummy and leads the jack of trumps for a finesse. West wins and continues hearts, and declarer is doomed to lose three more tricks.

CLUB WINNER

South can avoid a heart loser by pitching a heart from dummy on a second club winner, but he must wait to draw trumps. If he tries an early finesse, he “loses a tempo” if West has the king.

First things first. South must win the first heart in his hand and lead a low club. West wins and leads another heart, and South wins in dummy, takes the queen of clubs, comes to his ace of diamonds and discards dummy’s last heart on the ace of clubs. The contract is safe.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ A Q 10 9 3 ♥ K73

♦ AJ ♣ A 5 2. The dealer, at your right, opens one diamond. You double, and your partner bids one heart. What do you say?

ANSWER: You have a nice hand, but you must not get carried away. Your partner was obliged to respond to your double, and his hand may be miserable. Bid one spade, showing spade length and at least 17 highcard points. If partner has anything, he will bid again. If not, you may be high enough at the one level.

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