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Your Hand
♠ 8
♥ A K Q 4
♦ K Q J 8 3
♣ 9 7 2 |
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Q: 5 - East is getting his money’s worth today. He finds himself playing 4
♥ after West jumps to 4
♦ as a splinter – showing three-card Heart support along with a singleton or void in Diamonds.
What are you going to try?
South | West | North | East |
- | - | Pass | 1♥ |
Pass | 2♣ | Pass | 2♥ |
Pass | 4♦ | Pass | 4♥ |
Pass | Pass | Pass | |
A: ♦K. Even though West has shown short Diamonds, the most effective plan of attack is to try and force declarer to ruff, thus shortening his trumps and promoting your own.
The maxim “trump length lead strength” is thrown around a lot, and for good reason. When you have unprecedented length in trumps it can often be a good idea to start tapping the enemy trumps, thus forcing them to lose trump control.
On this hand you can visualise the whole play based on your own hand and the auction. You know that you have all of the defensive strength, so declarer’s black suit holdings will be solid. His only task will be to draw your trumps, for he cannot allow you to score a ruff with your ♥4 in addition to your three guaranteed trump tricks.
On the ♦K lead declarer will win in hand with the Ace and play on trumps. Upon winning the first round you will fire out the ♦Q, ruffed on dummy. Unable to revert to the black suits for fear of you ruffing low, declarer will pursue his plan of drawing trumps by continuing with another one from the table, relieving dummy of its last trump and exposing declarer’s hand to the force. You’ll win and hammer away at his trumps by continuing with the ♦J.
With any luck declarer will only have two trumps left at this point, and he’ll have to give up and play off his black suit winners to hold you to only one undertrick.
If you had led a top trump, citing the need to reduce dummy’s trump length, you would have been left bitterly disappointed when it hit you that declarer now had the tempo to draw trumps and bring in ten tricks, for when in with your final trump East would hold two more trumps, and declarer’s hand would leer at you from the table as he claimed his contract.
Of course you need declarer to hold only five trumps rather than six for your plan to work, but it’s very possible that he has only five for his 2♥ rebid, for he might have for example 4.5.3.1 or 4.5.2.2 shape and a hand that’s not good enough to reverse with a 2♠ bid over 2♣.
Besides, given that you hold a fifteen count you know partner can have practically nothing, so declarer must have the black suits sewn up, in which case your only chance is to enlist the help of the force.
There aren’t really any hard and fast rules as to when and when not to lead trumps, for it depends entirely on the scenario you’re faced with. There are some auctions where a trump lead is usually called for, but still the best thing to do is construct a flexible plan for the defense before you make your lead.
Consider how the rest of the play is likely to go based on the inferences available to you and in turn assess the impact of each choice. Be wary that a trump lead should, as any other lead, have a purpose and intent behind it. It is normally a passive or neutral lead to make, and as such it sets the defense off on a passive line.
Under no circumstances should a trump be selected on the basis of not knowing what to lead, for even though it may be right some of the time, don’t forget that the opponents have won the auction for a reason – they expect to be able to make tricks given time, so an aggressive, attacking lead can often pay dividends.
When choosing between these options, it’s the case-specific inferences and paths of logic that count more than anything else.
Your result so far: