Resisting temptation as the declarer today

CNN managed to get an exclusive interview with the Devil. He stated that it’s not that people are sinning more than they used to; it’s just that less temptation is required to get them to do it.

Declarers — especially if inexperienced — are always tempted to draw trumps and worry later. In today’s deal, North-South bid to a good slam after an “inverted” minor-suit raise.

North’s two diamonds was strong and forcing; a raise to three diamonds would have been preemptive. (I don’t advocate this treatment. Some responding hands are neither weak nor strong. But it worked acceptably here.)

West led the jack of hearts. South played dummy’s queen, and East won and returned a heart to the ace. South then fell from grace and led a trump — thus chucking 1,470 points. He drew trumps and next went after the clubs. If that suit had split 3-3 or if a defender had held Q-x, South would have been home, but when East turned up with a singleton, South could take only 11 tricks: two clubs, five trumps in dummy, a heart, two spades and one spade ruff in his hand.

South succeeds with a “dummy reversal” but must not draw any trumps. He leads a spade to his ace at Trick Three, returns a club to dummy’s king, discards his last heart on the king of spades, and ruffs dummy’s last heart with the ace of trumps.

South can then lead a trump to dummy and ruff the last spade. He draws trumps (finally) and wins the last three tricks with high trumps and the ace of clubs.