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BRIDGE BITES  #113

      

 

TRIPLE PLAY

                                    Brian Gunnell

 

 

          

♠ 8754

♥ AK65

♦ 9832

♣ T

                  

 

            None Vulnerable

            South   West     North    East

            1♠         Pass     2♠        Pass

            4♠         Pass     Pass   Pass

 

When, as a defender, we have a trump holding such as Kx or QJx or JTxx, conventional wisdom tells us that it is frequently better not to chase after a ruff as we would have scored that trump trick naturally.  Let’s see how that advice works on this deal.

♠ K6

♥ QT43

♦ J

♣ J98764

       Dummy

 

West            East

 

       Declarer

♠ 3

♥ J9872

♦ AK65

♣ K53

 

♠ AQJT92

♥

♦ QT74

♣ AQ2

 

 

First Play: West ignores conventional wisdom and leads his singleton Diamond.  East takes his ♦K and ♦A and gives West his ruff.  Now, with only two enemy trumps remaining, Declarer should play for the drop, and that is 10 tricks for Declarer.  So, in this case, going after the ruff was not a success, West was indeed ruffing with a natural trump trick.

 

Actually, Declarer had a second compelling reason to play for the drop.  If he were to finesse the Spade he would be playing West to have two singletons.  That’s not impossible, of course, but with such extreme distribution, and being non-vulnerable, he might have been heard from in the bidding, don’t you think?

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