Bridge GETTING VALUE FROM THE SHORTER SIDE

This week’s theme, loosely, is looking at the handling of trumps. When should you draw trumps? The answer is multilayered, like an onion.

A few people pack a lot into a short life. One example was Blaise Pascal, a Frenchman who lived for only 39 years and 2 months. He was known primarily as a mathematician, but was also a man of letters, and in one he wrote: “I have only made this (letter) longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

Today, the trump suit is shorter in the dummy than in hand, which can be helpful to declarer. In four hearts, South receives a spade lead. How should he proceed?

First, declarer counts his losers by looking at his 13 cards and taking dummy’s honors into account. Here, he has two in diamonds and two in clubs. Next, he counts winners. There are nine: two spades, six hearts and one diamond. South must eliminate a loser, simultaneously generating his 10th trick.

Anytime declarer has more cards in a suit in his hand than on the board, he should plan to ruff on the board. After winning trick one, South continues with the ace and another diamond. Let’s assume East returns a spade. Declarer wins with his ace and ruffs the diamond jack with dummy’s heart ace. (Although it isn’t necessary here, always ruff high if you can afford to do so.) South draws trumps and claims.

Yes, declarer could have cashed one round of trumps, but if he had immediately pulled two, West would have defeated the contract by winning the second diamond trick with his 10 and returning his remaining trump to kill the vital ruff.