Bols Bridge Tip by Ana Valenti Part I

source: “Bridge Tips by World Masters” por Terence Reese

	A  A 7 6 5  Q J 9 4 2  K 8 3
Q J 10 4  Q 10 8 3  K 5 3  J 10		9 6 3 2  2  A 8 7  Q 9 6 5 4
	K 8 7 5  K J 9 4    10 6  A 7 2

Contract: 4

Lead: Q

 “You are in 4 and West leads the Q. If you set about drawing trumps you will surely lose two hearts and two diamonds, for one down.

 There is no great danger of an early overruff, and if the diamonds are going to break badly you won’t necessarily lose by playing them early on. So, the first move should be to lead, not a trump, but a low diamond from dummy.

The 10 loses to the K and West shifts to the J. You win in hand and cash the K, discarding a club from the table.

A low spade is ruffed and you lead the Q from dummy. East wins and, observing that you have not seemed keen to play trumps yourself, leads his singleton heart, West’s 8 forcing dummy’s A. The position now is:

	7 6   J 9 4   K
J   Q 10 8         5   10		9     8   Q 9 6 5
	8   K J 9       7 2

Continuing to play n cross-ruff lines, you cash the K, ruff the J; a winner!; and ruff a spade. You refrain from ruffing the next lead and triunphantly make  K-J at the finish.

 I am not sure about this hand, It si slightly double-dummyish in the sense that, playing as suggested, you might run into an untimely ruff and lose a contract that would be lay-down in trumps were 3-2.

My Tip is:  “Don’t rush to draw trumps. On some hands you may be unable to draw them successfully; on others, even if you can draw them, you will be left with too few tricks“.