MONTHLY HAND DEC 2000 
INTRODUCTION
THIS MONTH'S TOPICS:
         Overcall vs. Double 
          Setting up Long  Suit
          Entries
          Ruffing High
We evaluate a hand played in a suit contract in terms of losers. How many, and how do we get rid of them.
     DUMP, TRUMP & FINESSE are three ways of eliminating losers. The FINESSE and TRUMPING are fairly routine and become apparent to the Declarer when Dummy comes down. But DUMPING a loser on a winner is sometimes harder to recognize. This might involve setting up a long suit by ruffing out the opponents' high cards in that suit. An important factor in such a maneuver is communication between Dummy and the closed hand. 

 
BIDDING
After West opens the bidding 1 C, North has two possible bids. A Take-Out Double which shows an opening hand and support for the unbind suits; or an Overcall of 1 H. Both bids have their pros and cons. 
       The main reason for the 1 H Overcall is that North/South might not get the contract and the Heart bid is lead directing; partner will lead a Heart if East/West play the hand.
      Another reason to bid 1 H is that partner can support that bid with a three card Heart Suit. This makes it possible to outbid the opponents (or make a sacrifice if opponents get to game.) 
     South's 2 S bid is not a pre- emptive jump response, but shows a hand of 10 or more points and a five card Spade suit. 
     North can bid 3 S at this point, but that will put too much pressure on South. So North with the doubleton Club and good Spades goes to game with a bid of 4 S. 

 
OPENING LEAD
The opening lead by West is pretty standard: the A C. (There might be a few people left who lead the King from Ace/King.) 
       The lead of the A C gives West a chance to see Dummy and still be on lead. 
        West continues with the K C followed by the K D. 

 
PLAY
Dummy comes down. Count losers before playing a Club. A good plan is based on counting, and in a suit contract Declarer counts losers.  So let's do it: 
        0 Spades;  0 Hearts; 2 Diamonds; and 2 Clubs. That is 4 losers; one too many to make the hand. What  to do? Concede down one? Leave the room? No. Let's examine the losers. 
       The two Clubs have to be lost - no way to get out of that. The Diamond situation is also not very promising. There are no FINESSE possibilities; and since Diamonds are 3/3, there is no way to TRUMP a Diamond loser in Dummy.
       PLAN: The only way to get rid of the Diamond loser is to DUMP it on a winner. But where is that winner? 
       It cannot be Trump and it cannot be Clubs. By elimination it has to be Hearts. But how is this done? There are no high cards. But look again. Aha! Who needs high cards when there is length? 
       There are 7 Hearts between Declarer and Dummy. That means there are 6 Hearts in the East/West hands. If the Hearts are divided in the East/West hands 3/3, then the playing of the A H followed by the K H and then trumping a small Heart, will exhaust East/West's Hearts. This sets up two winning Hearts in Dummy. 
        Even if Hearts split 4/2, two Hearts can be Trumped and the fifth Heart is a winner. (If Hearts split 5/1 or 6/0 the hand cannot be made.) Ruff high, watch entries, count trump and good luck.

PLAY: win the third trick with the A D and then play the A H and K H. No one trumped, great. The hand can now be made. 
       Play the 2 H (the third Heart) and trump it in the hand with the K S. This prevents West from over trumping. If you trumped with the 4 S, West would over trump with the 7 S. And even though gloating is not proper form at the Bridge table, West would be hard put to try to stop it. And there would even be more gloating when the Q D is banged down for the setting trick. 
      Trumping with the K S serves another purpose: it preserves the small Spades (6 S and 4 S) as entries to Dummy. 
       Let us now use one of those entries by playing the 4 S to the 8 S. Do not stay in Dummy too long; trump another low Heart (the fourth) with the Q S. 
       That last low Heart, the fifth Heart, in Dummy is now a winner. Back to Dummy (6 S to the J S) and note that East did not follow but discarded a low Diamond. That means that West started with 3 Spades and still has one. So play the A S pulling the last trump from West. 
       The time has come. All the trumping and going back and forth to Dummy has led to this moment, this play. Lead the small but winning Heart from Dummy and DUMP a losing Diamond from the South hand. Bravo! 
       The Diamond losses have been reduced from 2 to 1. No Spade losers; no Heart losers; 1 Diamond loser; and 2 Club losers for a total of only 3 losers. Making 4 S.

QUESTIONS:
1. Is there an opening lead by West that could set the contract?
2. Could Declarer pull two rounds of trump? 

     Answers

DEFENSE 
The Defense is pretty straight forward. The Defenders basically follow suit and do not revoke. Nothing they could do.
      On the play of the K D, East could drop the J D. This is an attitude signal showing that he likes the suit. (He knows his partner most likely has the 
Q D.)
      Another line of Defense is that West switches to Spades after taking the winning Clubs. The hope is that this might prematurely use up an entry to Dummy. (see Question above.) 

 
 

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