Source: ACBL
Sunday July 26th, 2014
Opening lead: 4.
Bidding commentary: Looks normal. 4 is certainly reasonable with the South hand. West’s double, for penalty, also looks reasonable with
two-plus defensive tricks facing an opening bidder.
Play commentary: After East takes the first two heart tricks and plays a third high heart, ruff with the J, the higher equal to induce an overruff if West has a likely Q 9 x x.
Defensive commentary: If South ruffs the third heart with the J, discard! You now have two spade winners. Your 9 is a big card. If you decline to overruff the J, your 9 will eventually become a trick.
As West, you must be very careful about overruffing an honor with another honor when you have length in the suit and a high spot card like the 8 or 9. Those cards are frequently promoted to tricks.
The important points:
1: When ruffing with an honor in a situation where you are likely to be overruffed, ruff with the highest equal honor, the one most likely to induce an overruff.
2. When given a chance to overruff an honor with an honor, be sure you wouldn’t have a second trump trick if you didn’t overruff!