|
♠ K52
♥
A76
♦
A54
♣ Q872 |
|
♠ AT98
♥
9832
♦
KQJ3
♣ 6 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ 6
♥
J54
♦
T9876
♣ A943 |
|
♠ QJ743
♥
KQT
♦
2
♣KJT5 |
|
First look what happened when the
deal was played in real life. West led that Club, got his ruff, and shifted to
the ♦K,
won in Dummy. That was followed by a trump to the Queen and West’s Ace. West
persisted with Diamonds, but Declarer ruffed that, drew the remaining trumps,
and had nothing left but winners. Making 10 tricks!
Now look what happens when West
tries the forcing game. Declarer wins the opening Diamond lead, loses a trick
to the ♠A, ruffs the Diamond continuation, and then gets the bad news about the
4-1 trump split. Declarer must still lose a trick to the ♣A and now another
Diamond is ruinous and 4♠ goes down. To repeat, the moral to this story is:
When you have a powerful trump holding it usually doesn’t pay to go after
ruffs. Better to attack with the defense’s strong suit, forcing Declarer to
weaken his own trumps and (hopefully) to lose control.
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