Communication
Communication -- getting back and forth between your two hands -- is such an important part of skillful declarer play that I'm beginning to think it's the most underworked of all declarer topics. Let me posit a suit that looks like this to take one from a recent hand:
K Q 8 5
A J 9 3
In the past couple of years, I began calling a suit like this a "communication suit," allowing as a side suit a lot of getting back and forth (as trump, you may have to take three leads, perhaps even four before you can get around to your other suits). And I think it's a serious mistake to run this suit quickly before you've gotten around to developing tricks in other suits. Yet I see this time and time again, not merely too soon, but as declarer's first step on getting the lead (in no trump) or after trump are drawn.
Now, I can see two reasons why you may want to run your tricks before you're on claim. One is that you simply cannot afford to lose the lead -- you have 9 top tricks in a 3 no contract and your only stopper in hearts was knocked out quickly. Of course. The other is that you can win every trick but one, in which case you're in prime territory for a squeeze, and there's no reason not to run top tricks. But failing one of these reasons, and I would say that'll probably be the case in over 90% of the hands you play, you've got to think of developing your winners. You've got to think of knocking out aces or kings, taking finesses, ruffing in the short hand, doing what I call the housekeeping first. Well, of course, in trump contracts, you've got to think of drawing the opponents' trump, in which case you might cash out top winners. But aside from that, you've got to think of developing winners. And when you've done all that, you're going to want to have the communication to cash them.
On the other hand, I can think of only one reason for an early cashing of tricks you've always got coming and always have access to, and that's to transfer the lead from one hand to the other. Otherwise, I think you'd do well to leave those tricks alone until you're ready to cash out for one of the reasons cited above. There are so many reasons why you may want that communication later in the hand, that a listing probably wouldn't do justice to them all. The examples will have to speak to this themselves. This communication suit doesn't have to be 4-4, of course. It might be so modest as an ace in one hand, the king in another, and maybe you're lucky the defense didn't lead that suit and wipe out communication in one direction before the hand is clarified and you know where you want to preserve entries.
The only reason I can fathom for the proclivity of declarers to attack their own communication suit quickly is that they think they'll induce a bad discard from an opponent. Well, that would hardly hold on a short suit, ace in one hand, king in another, in which case wiping out communication appears to be simple carelessness. But on 4-4 or 5-4 holdings, that's the only reason I can see for the immediate attack. And I think it's a completely wrongheaded reason. You're about twenty times as likely to hurt your own hand than you are to do any harm to the opponents. Of course you can point to instances where this worked. You can always find some foolhardy discards by opponents. But lemme ask: are you looking to develop a formidable game against even pretty competent opponents, or are you expecting to base your game on the mistakes of foolhardy opps?
Communication, of course, is a sub-section of Entries, another category I just added, but a recent hand where a declarer began attacking his communication suit led me to believe that a separate category is warranted. Many good illustrations have slipped away over the years, but unless declarers change their spots, I'll have plenty in the future.
Here are some Illustrations.