Treasure your trumps

As declarer one can be acutely aware of the opposing trumps causing awkwardness but it is often much harder for a defender to appreciate. Nevertheless I was surprised to be the unwitting beneficiary of this mis-defence. I reached five clubs on these cards:

  • 1076
  • 6
  • Q1094
  • KJ1098
N
W
E
S
  • 843
  • AQJ872
  • ---
  • A765
West
North
East
South
—
1
1
X*
Pass
1NT
Pass
Pass
2
…

And partner refused to be deterred until game was reached. The lead was the diamond ace and I ruffed. South had shown four spades but the lead wasn't the mistake. I played a club to hand and collected the queen from North, took a heart finesse, cashed the ace and led a heart to ruff. South surprisingly contributed one of his small trumps to this trick and I was home, able to re-enter dummy with the ace, ruff the hearts good and reach the East hand one more time with a diamond ruff to enjoy the hearts. I can only think that because his trumps were ♣432 South was fooled into thinking they had no value.

In defence your trumps are vital and you should conserve them. When you know that declarer will over-ruff, unless you have a clear plan of how to use them, keep them. The most familiar mechanisms are that by ruffing you create a trump trick that didn't exist before or that you can kill declarer's winner. This example from a club game was more complex.

  • 9764
  • 864
  • A2
  • 10852
  • AKQJ
  • Q1095
  • K975
  • 7
N
W
E
S
  • 10853
  • J7
  • Q643
  • QJ4
  • 2
  • AK32
  • J108
  • AK963

North-South bid clubs, East-West discovered their spades after West doubled and declared 3♠ from East. South led his aces and without encouragement from North, switched to a spade. A second round was played and then East played hearts, South exiting with a third round. The situation was now:

  • 97
  • ---
  • A2
  • 1052
  • AK
  • 10
  • K975
  • ---
N
W
E
S
  • 108
  • ---
  • Q643
  • QJ
  • ---
  • 3
  • J108
  • K96

East (mistakenly) led the ♥10 and North ruffed, East over-ruffed. East now had good enough cards to recover by creating a club winner with a ruffing finesse and playing a diamond from West and ducking the next round. You see how North should have defended? By throwing a diamond then leading a club to force a top spade honour when in with his ace, he would have prevented declarer from drawing trumps, as diamonds, the suit he had voided, would eventually have to be played from dummy.

Published Saturday 8.Apr.2006