Trump Management

Tag Archives: Trump Management

Fundamentals of playing a suit contract

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Harry • 0 comment

Here is a hand I played at the club recently. I am in 3 spades on the bidding shown. I messed up the fundamentals. Look at my problem and see if you can do better.

What would be your plan? (Scroll down to see the plan I should have come up with.)

Visualizing the opponents’ hands: It looks like the king of hearts is top of a doubleton (North likely started with 7 hearts). Also, East is likely to be short in diamonds. Bottom line is that you may be able to develop a crossruff without either opponent being able to overruff. You need to cash the outside suit (clubs) before starting the crossruff. Also, you need to lead a diamond to void your hand.

Plan:

Ruff the opening lead in dummy.
Low club to your king.
Low diamond toward dummy (maybe you will get lucky if West has the ace and does not play it). Assume West wins the ace and returns a trump (best defense).
You win West’s trump lead in hand.
Club to dummy’s ace, hoping it survives.
Cash diamond king, discarding heart from hand.
Ruff a diamond.
Ruff a heart.
Heart ruff.

10. Diamond ruff.

11. Ace of spades for your 10^th trick.

Wasn’t that easy! (I pulled trumps prematurely)

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: Counting Losers in a suit contract, Remember the bidding, Trump Management, Visualizing the Opponents' Hands

What could go wrong?

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Harry • 0 comment

I failed to concentrate on what could go wrong on this one. And what could go wrong did go wrong!

Put yourself in the South seat and see if you can do better:

Opening lead was the five of hearts. East won the ace and returned the four, I won with the king, and West played the six. I then cashed the ace and king of spades and saw West discard the nine of hearts on the second spade.

From here is looks easy: Cash the queen of hearts to discard a diamond and draw the last trump. Losers are one heart, one diamond, and one club.

Oops, there was another loser. What went wrong, and how could I have avoided the error?

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: Counting Losers in a suit contract, Trump Management, Visualizing the Opponents' Hands

What I am working on

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Harry • 0 comment

How do you play trumps when you hold AK109x in hand opposite four small trumps in dummy? Likelihood of trumps breaking 2-2 is 40 percent at the outset. So, it’s best to start trumps from the top. Say you do so and left hand opponent follows with the jack. How does that usually change things? Assume you have entries to dummy.

Please give me your thoughts in the comments. I will resume this post when back from a three day trip.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: restricted choice, Trump Management

Another on Counting your Losers

Posted on May 23, 2021 by Harry • 0 comment

You opened one heart in 2^nd seat and West overcalled two diamonds. Partner had enough strength to make a negative double at the two level. Having 5-5 in the rounded suits increased the value of your hand. So, you were willing to go to three clubs for your rebid. Partner took the suit preference for hearts and you bid game. Opening lead was the king of diamonds.

Here is what you saw summary of the bidding:

You were in a good contract. How would you play to make four hearts? Your thoughts on opening lead:

West should have the ace of hearts.
Other than that you have the remaining high hearts.
You have the top three clubs, and there is a good chance they will split no worse than 4-2 (84%).
You should lose no more than two spades and the ace of hearts.
Hearts should split no worse than 4-2 (84%).

Do those clues shed light on how you should play? Please let me know by email or in comments if you are unclear on what to do at trick two.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: Counting Losers in a suit contract, Negative Double, Plan your rebid, Remember the bidding, Setting up a long suit, Trump Management, Watch intermedates in hierarchy of each suit

Katz Play

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Harry • 0 comment

Here is a hand I saw played by Ralph Katz sitting South:

Note that Katz will go down immediately if West leads a diamond. However, West chose the reasonable lead of the ace of clubs.

Katz ruffed and visualized the East hand. This is what I infer that Katz was thinking: East had opened the bidding and, after rebidding his diamonds, should hold the ace and king of diamonds. West led the ace of clubs, so presumably has the king as well. Also, it appears that an unbalanced hand with length in clubs would justify West’s aggressive bidding. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that East holds the Q J of hearts to justify his opening bid.

Assume Katz visualized a hand like the one East held, do you see how he avoided losing one heart and two diamonds? He made his doubled contract! How did Katz Play?

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: Counting Losers in a suit contract, Double Dummy, Remember the bidding, Think before you play to trick one, Trump Management, Visualizing the Opponents' Hands

Botched Play?

Posted on March 27, 2020 by Harry • 0 comment

This hand played by experts on BBO was bid nicely, but the play was botched. Follow along and see if you agree:

South got to four hearts after she opened the bidding one club, her LHO overcalled one spade, and her partner made a negative double.

Opening lead by West was the king of spades. Declarer won the ace, played a trump to dummy’s ace, and led a low club to the queen which won. Declarer can now conclude that West has the ace of clubs. If trumps split 3-2 and West has the king of diamonds, this contract should make: Go to dummy with a second round of trumps and lead a diamond toward the king-queen. If West plays the ace your diamonds are set up and your king of clubs is protected. If West plays low, you draw a third round of trumps and lead another diamond toward the queen. Contract should make with one spade loser, one diamond loser and one club loser.

Inexplicably to me, declarer led another club back toward the king at trick four and down she went. Here is the entire hand: