Dubious Logic

Putting the trumps to work

I have noticed a rather disturbing trend recently. Once upon a time, when I used to teach bridge to an evening class, I was forever trying to impress on my students the folly of taking useless ruffs. It seems having been introduced to the idea of trumps and the cross-ruff, they were so enthralled that they couldn't resist the attraction of scoring tricks with those low cards. I tried in vain to impress upon them that unless they ruffed in the short hand or managed to shorten the length in the longer trump hand beneath the shorter – be it the closed hand or dummy – they did not gain a trick.

The recent trend however, is to eschew all ruffs and it's seen in club play regularly. Typically this occurs when trumps are played too early, the defence get wise to the change in plan and they lead the suit again. A tempo has been lost, and all chance of scoring ruffs in the short hand disappear. Of course, not all situations are as simple as that, and sometimes the character of the hand can be seductive. Take this hand from the most recent count match against Cambridge University:

You bid well and reach six spades from West, receiving the lead of the king of diamonds – how do you play?

This hand seems very much about suit establishment – or cashing tricks really. If you manage to draw trumps in three rounds, you'll enjoy five trumps tricks – counting four in one hand a ruff with the extra trump at the end – five hearts, a diamond and a club by force. What can go wrong?

Well two things. First trumps may well be 4-1. In that case if you draw them you'll restrict yourself to only four tricks from the suit. Moreover, you'll not have an entry to hand. Leave a trump or two out before playing a club and either they'll play more hearts after you've taken your necessary discards, forcing you to ruff one of your own tricks, or another trump and you'll still be short. The second hurdle is that you'll need hearts 4-3 as well. If they are not, then down to four hearts, you will need two tricks from clubs. That will need the ace of clubs on-side… Well more than that, even if South does have it, he may should not play it - again, you'll be a trick short.

There is a much cleaner way of playing this contract. After winning the diamond ace, overtake the heart knave to play two more rounds of the suit, throwing diamonds, then lead a club. True, the defence may lead a trump when in with the club ace, but when the second club holds up, you are more or less home. As long as the ♠8 scores a trick, you may find yourself making the contract against trumps 5-0!

What happened at the table? Well first I have to admit, I too tried to draw trumps but then again, everyone I spoke to played the same line, and all found spades 4-1. However, hearts were 5-2 as well so there was no way to make this contract and our blushes were spared.

Published Saturday 26.Mar.2005