Make a Plan!!

[OliverC]

Some hands are awkward in that you cannot make a really concrete plan until part-way through the hand. Some hands, however, are much easier, and the plan should be obvious at trick one. The following hand is a really good example, on which you are sat North:

Love All, Dealer West

Bidding
West     North     East     South
No          1         1       X⁽¹⁾
No          1 ⁽²⁾    No        1 ⁽³⁾
No          2 ⁽⁴⁾    No        2
All Pass

(1) 5-7 any shape
(2) 2-way
(3) Relay
(4) / 2-suiter

South (Dummy)
  A106542
  865
  Q10
  107

3 led

North
  -
  QJ932
  K84
  AKQJ8

On the lead of the 3 you think a while and then go up with Dummy's Ace (West plays the 7 and you discard a Diamond from hand). What should your plan be?

Looking at Dummy and with the friendly lead, you're now probably wishing you had made an invitation over 2 , because lots of pairs will surely be in game here. With 5 Club tricks waiting to be cashed, it's clear the main emphasis of your plan should be drawing trumps as quickly and safely as possible. The lead has given you a free, extra entry to Dummy which means that leading trumps twice towards your QJ is now easy, allowing you to play for split heart honours or the 10 onside.

Since you have absolutely no need to ruff anything in Dummy, there's no need whatever to delay drawing the trumps, so you should lead a Heart from Dummy at trick 2, because the only real danger on this hand is losing trump control if Opps decide to force you in Spades. You cannot afford to do anything other than lead a trump immediately. If you do, West plays the 7 and East takes your Jack with the Ace and leads the Queen. Now you can ruff in hand, cross to the 10 and lead another Heart, which West takes with the King and leads a third Spade. You can now ruff, draw the last trump and run all of your Clubs. At the end, East still has to give you a Diamond trick for your 10th trick, because they only have Diamonds left.

At the table, Partner led a Diamond at trick 2 to her King and East's Ace, and was got forced in Spades. Now Declarer crossed to the 10 and forced her own hand by ruffing a 2nd Spade, crossed back to Dummy's Queen and led a Heart to her Jack and East's Ace. East continued with a Diamond, so Declarer ruffed in Dummy and discarded a Club Winner from hand. Still she neglected to lead trumps and crossed back to hand with a Club and then played a 3rd round of Clubs, which East ruffed with the 4 and on which Declarer discarded a Spade rather than overruffing in Dummy. Another Diamond followed and Declarer discarded yet another Spade from Dummy rather than ruffing with the 8. That allowed West to  discard their last losing Club and forced Declarer to ruff with the 9, with the K10 still out there. Needless to say, that was the last trick and the defence took the last 2.

4 Pairs were going off in 4 , but 7 bid it and made it. 2 making only 8 tricks was not a disaster, therefore, but almost every other Pair were making 9 or 10 tricks. The point about this hand is that you really need to concentrate on identifying the essential issues in a hand. Here, with a cast iron 7 tricks outside the trump suit (1 , 1 and 5 ), the looming threat of being forced in Spades and West overuffing Diamonds, the essential feature of the hand is drawing trumps as quickly as possible.