The Balanced Suit for Trump!

	9
	A 7
	A Q 9 8
	A K Q 10 5 3
K J 10 8 6 5		4 3 2
Q 10 3		K 6 5 2
6 4		K 5 2
8 7		J 9 4
	A Q 7
	J 9 8 4
	J 10 7 3	Opening lead: ?
	6 2	Contract: 6 clubs, 6 diamonds

The balanced over the unbalanced for trump! That is, if your choice is between two majors or two minors. (If not, I'd opt for the major, which will steer you right far more often than the balanced vs. unbalanced.) And this presupposes that the balanced suit is adequate for trump. But if those criteria are met, then it's a serious mistake to think that you want that long, powerful suit as trump. If your balanced suit is strong enough to draw the opponents' trump and control the hand, that powerful unbalanced suit will be worth just as many tricks as a side suit AND your balanced suit might -- that's MIGHT -- be worth a trick more, even two more, as trump.

Here's the breakdown of the results: Eight pairs were in 6 clubs, none making. Five pairs in 6 diamonds went down on a heart lead. That's right. The balanced as trump is no guarantee that it'll bring in more tricks. It only offers a high probability that if there is a difference in potential, the balanced suit will work better. Seven pairs made 6 diamonds, six of them not getting a heart lead, which makes the contract a piece of cake. And lastly, one intrepid pair in 6 no made.

First, how did a declarer make six diamonds on a heart lead? Well, you tell me. It was played from the North hand above. The 6 of hearts was led, low from dummy, the 10 drawing the ace. Now came a lead to the ace of spades and a diamond hook into the king, and that worthy led a spade! I have no idea why anyone would lead from the king of hearts, and then when it works and the king is established, he doesn't cash it out!

The only other curiosity in play was the 6 no contract. What incautious discards would lead to that, I wondered. But it wasn't an incautious discard. It was the opening lead from the king of spades. And that took care of declarer's 12th trick. Any other suit would have spelled declarer's defeat, a heart lead spelling several undertricks. So . . . lead from the king of hearts and you're a hero (except in that one case). Lead from the king of spades and you're a goat.

Otherwise, there isn't much to the play of the hand. So there are a lot of possible advantages, not certainties, to the balanced suit as trump: If clubs split 4-1 (the J not singleton), you can ruff out a round of clubs if diamonds are trump. If you don't get a heart lead, or if the diamond hook is on you can sluff hearts on the unbalanced clubs as a side-suit and avoid a loser there. If, if, if, the skeptical reader protests. Okay, these are matters beyond your control, but 6 people in a diamond slam didn't get a heart lead (and one got a failure to follow up on a heart lead). But find me an advantage to choosing the unbalanced suit for trump. With or without a heart lead. With or without the diamond hook being on. Where is it?

I note one pair in six clubs located their diamond fit quickly -- and then after a Blackwood bid, the Blackwooder let a 6 clubs response to 5 no pass out. That club suit isn't necessarily self-supporting opposite a partner who has shown no liking for the suit. But that's neither here nor there. They'd found a balanced suit. Yes, of course that's a powerful club suit, but you're going to get just as much value out of that club suit when it's a side suit and perhaps more. Of course you never get more than six club winners, whether it's trump or a side suit. But if diamonds are trump (and you don't get a heart lead), those six club winners are going to be instrumental in establishing an extra diamond winner (through sluffing hearts and ruffing a heart). Further, it was the (eventual) Blackwood bidder who introduced the diamond suit (after a heart response from his partner) and was immediately raised in diamonds. Now, I ask you, what's the point of introducing a second suit for trump, getting support, and then petering out with your strong suit as trump. You don't need that club suit for trump to get full value from it! [5 clubs to Blackwood? They may have been playing some version of Roman Key Card.]

Anyway, I hope it is clear that on anything but a heart lead, declarer takes the diamond hook, regains the lead, draws trump (3-2, please), and now can sluff three hearts on the club differential (plus a low spade), cash the ace of hearts and ruff a heart, cash the A of spades, ruff a spade for 12 tricks.

Let me summarize the bal vs. unbal here:

1. Choosing the balanced suit for trump over an unbalanced won't necessarily bring an advantage. (We are talking about adequate suits for trump here.) A lot of things have to go right for this potential advantage to come to fruition:

a. You've got to control trump, pretty much.

b. You've got to have a side suit you can run.

c. You've got to have at least one guarded loser.

These three criteria pretty much say that in partial-level hands, you won't have the horses to do all this. Game-level bids are where this potential is likely to start surfacing, with slams of course likeliest to offer all this required strength. It is because there is no necessary advantage to the balanced suit as trump that I favor the major over the minor when the choice is between one or the other.

2. If there is no necessary advantage to naming the balanced suit as trump that is certainly not to say this is a fleeting or evanescent advantage. On the contrary, as all these examples (with the exception of Number 4, which I'll get to in a minute) demonstrate the advantage. It is a very positive possibility that should be pursued vigorously.

3. The argument throughout has always been that if there is going to be a difference, it will almost surely lie with naming the balanced suit trump. Sometimes this comes from a defensive goof, as above, when some people didn't lead hearts and in one case led hearts but didn't follow up with cashing the K, allowing declarers to make 6 diamonds where no one could make 6 on the strong, unbalanced side suit. And you'll wanna take advantage of the possibility.

4. It is possible, though I say rare, for the opposite to hold true, i. e., for the unbalanced suit to work better as trump. Maybe you'll see one of those cases every 4 or five years. That will require that you have a truly dog of a balanced suit and a strong running unbalanced suit and not least, a third suit on which you can get sluffs of your dog of a balanced suit, which, need I say, you hold the ace in. I have given an alleged case here (Example 4), but I can only say again that it looks hokey to me. Every single one of the four suits has to be just what you see for this unusual occurrence: the spades are situated such that an opening spade lead doesn't knock out a stopper. The hearts are such that the K is sitting over the Q. The diamonds will run. And the clubs offer two top winners on which two hearts can be sluffed, i.e., if diamonds are trump. Miracle of miracles. Columnists are in the business of giving us unusual hands with devilishly clever play, and I can only say it looks to me as though this columnist thought he'd devise a hand where the unbalanced suit works better as trump. But I don't think the hand ever occurred.