Here is a declarer play problem by Bob Jones. It appeared in his regular column on October 18.
Spades at trick one are deuce, four, six, and ace!. The excellent trump lead negates the possibility of ruffing a losing club in dummy. How would you go about holding your losers to three?
Hint: notice that your six trumps are higher than opponents’ remaining three. Try making dummy the master hand, ruffing heart and diamond losers in your hand.
You have to be careful to preserve entries to dummy to do so. Make sure you win the opening lead with a high trump in hand. That way the jack and nine of spades will be entries when LHO continues to attack trumps.
Try this:
- Win trick one with ace in hand.
- Cash the ace and king of hearts.
- Give up a diamond.
- Win the trump return in dummy.
- Ruff remaining heart high in hand.
- Go to dummy with ace of diamonds.
- Ruff a diamond high in hand.
- Go to dummy with ace of clubs.
- Ruff remaining diamond high in hand
That gives you 10 tricks: 3 spades plus heart ruff and 2 diamond ruffs in hand, Ace and King of hearts, Ace of clubs, and Ace of diamonds.
Be alert for possible “dummy reversals”. Here was the entire deal:
