Get 'em Out: Trump, trump, trump


2
K J 8 6 4
10 8 6 5 4
4 2
Q 9 6 K J 8 7 5 3
Q 9 7 3 2
K 9 2 Q 3
K 9 7 8 5 3
A 10
A 10 5
A J 7 Contract: 4 hearts
A Q J 10 6 Opening lead: 6 of spades

This hand needs a bit of counting, a glance at Dummy Reversals, q.v., and as the category indicates, getting them ol' trump out, which should leave declarer feeling quite satisfied with himself. [Actually, the distribution of the hearts & South's point count indicate that South opened 2 no and wound up declarer on a transfer bid. So it was the partnership's decision to put the master hand in hearts in dummy. Which means that in a sense it's hardly a dummy reversal in that you expect dummy to have the dominant heart suit you'll more than likely count out the hand from. Make sense?]
Lemme start with counting. Here it would seem that counting losers would put declarer in the proper frame of mind: you don't have to lose any spades. You can afford the loss of one heart, one diamond and one club. How do you effect the loss of only one diamond? Well, the opponents can't attack the suit without putting declarer in that position. So now, how many sluffs of diamonds do you have on the clubs? And the answer has to be the differential, which is three. (You have as many sluffs coming as the difference in length, minus the number of times you ruff. There shouldn't be any times you ruff here, but there was for one declarer, which was why he went down.) And lastly, let's look at the hand from the standpoint of the hand with the long trump: we needn't bother about spades; there doesn't seem any likelihood of more than one heart loser, with 4 of the top 5 cards, can't lose more than one club, and if we can sluff 3 diamonds, it would seem to cut our diamond losses to one. So what went wrong?
Well, lemme start with the declarer who let a valuable club get ruffed: Win the opening spade lead, cash the A of hearts, low to the J. He might have thought of leading the 10, but that wasn't what did him in. At that point, West has the Q 9 tenace over the 10, or in other words, always has a heart trick coming, which indeed, we factored in as tolerable. Declarer now took the club hook, ruffed a spade return, and at this point it should be a cakewalk. Cash the K of hearts and come to the clubs to run 'em, sluffing diamonds. West has the same number of trump as dummy, and indeed the high trump. But declarer has a couple of things West doesn't have, one being the lead, another the A of diamonds stopper and above all, some clubs to run in the same hand as the A of diamonds. West can ruff in, starting with the fourth round, but what of it? That's his natural trump trick. You'll sluff a diamond on that trick, regain the lead, return to the clubs with the A of diamonds, run 'em and claim, losing one heart, one diamond and one club.
Here's what the hand should have looked like with declarer on lead, having lost only one trick -- to the K of clubs -- at this point:

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

Declarer plays the 10 and 6 of clubs. If West ruffs in, declarer still sluffs a diamond on the club, regains the lead to sluff another diamond (if West ruffed the first of two leads here), cash the ace of diamonds, lose a diamond and ruff round three. Or West can hold off, sluffing first a spade and then low diamond on those two clubs, capture the second round of diamonds and cash the high trump. Bid and made.
Instead, declarer, not the first one to get unhinged by a bad trump break, broke off leading trump after the second round to take the club hook. On regaining the lead, a spade ruffed in dummy, declarer came to his clubs, ran through round three at which point the hand looked like this:

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

What did declarer do on the next round of clubs? He overruffed West's 9 of trump! Now when you're ruffing, you're not sluffing. Which means that in overruffing the 9, declarer sluffs only two diamonds -- and West has the high trump to boot! Declarer can't afford that. The K of hearts should have captured that trump earlier -- without taking a club winner with it.
The hand now looks like this:
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8
10 8 6 5
------
9 J 8 7
Q ------
K 9 2 Q 3
------ ------
------
10
A J 7
6

Declarer can come to the closed hand with the A of diamonds and lead another club, sluffing a diamond. But dummy would be left with two diamonds and West need only sit back and wait for the second round of diamonds to cash the high trump at which point the remaining tricks belong to the defense.
Could declarer have recovered at the point of West's ruff? Yes, it looks to be so. He must duck that ruff, sluffing a diamond, of course (the second one, and what he's supposed to be doing with those clubs). The hand would then have looked like this:
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K 8
10 8 6
------
9 J 8 7
Q ------
K 9 2 Q 3
------ ------
------
10
A J 7
6

What can West lead? A spade? Declarer (who is back to having one more trump than West by that duck) can sluff a diamond from dummy (the third, which is all he wanted) and ruff in the closed hand with the 10. Now he can try another club. West must ruff, inhibiting the discard of still another diamond. If he doesn't, declarer makes an overtrick! When West ruffs, declarer must overruff, of course, but the sluff&ruff spade lead allowed enough diamond sluffs to satisfy declarer. A diamond lead would allow declarer to shift gears. It takes an honor to beat the J, and now declarer can hold himself to one diamond loser in another way, by taking the queen, drawing the last trump and knocking out the K of diamonds with the J to claim a good dummy. West's only other option is to lead a trump. Declarer wins, comes to the A of diamonds and now can discard a third diamond on the last club.
But with the overruff, declarer became discombobulated. He came to the A of diamonds, led the last club -- and ruffed it! How he expected to lose only one diamond on that play is a mystery. He now led a diamond to the Q and K. West overtook his partner's Q to draw the last trump with the Q and now a spade lead beat the contract.
Another declarer didn't pay much attention to that 6 of clubs: This one didn't make the mistake of overruffing, but his line of play was equally as expensive. Spade to the A, A of hearts, heart to the J, club to the 10 and K, spade to be ruffed in dummy. Now he had it all: draw West's third trump, leaving him with the high one, come to the clubs and run 'em, letting him ruff in when he so chooses, and then return to the closed hand with the A of diamonds to continue clubs. Instead he came to the A of clubs, third round, sluffing a diamond, fourth round, sluffing a diamond as West ruffs and now West shoots his last heart to the K, declarer comes to the closed hand with the A of diamonds and . . . and leads a diamond for two diamond losers! What happened to the 5th club? Well, it was still there! Declarer didn't recognize it as a winner, a contract-fulfilling winner! It went on trick 13 as declarer ruffed a spade lead. Declarer was, in fact, ruffing that club winner!
Two declarers took the opening spade lead and immediately ruffed a spade! Hey, man, that's your master hand. You don't want to deplete that trump length. You're always getting that fifth heart in dummy. As long as it's there, it represents a stopper, an entry and of course a winner. Hold off. One opponent may hold 4 trump. You don't want to get down to his length if you can help it. Getcher trump out. Establish clubs. Do anything but cash that valuable winner/stopper/entry you've always got coming!
But wait a minute. One of those declarers who ruffed a spade immediately, finessed into the K of clubs, and got a spade back. A sluff and ruff. Often a sluff-and-ruff doesn't harm the defense at all, particularly when declarer has a rather tenuous hold on trump and not many side-suit losers, when it can be quite effective. Since I knew this declarer went down, I initially suspected that that was the case. But no, on closer examination, it looks to me as if that declarer was handed a gift, a chance for an overtrick. He must let the lead ride, ruffing in the closed hand, sluffing a diamond! Now cash the A of hearts, finesse the J, cash the K and come back to run clubs. West can ruff in whenever he pleases, but since you have the A of diamonds, and West has only diamonds at that point, you continue running clubs, sluffing three more diamonds for an overtrick!
Unhappily, declarer didn't let the sluff and ruff of a spade led ride, but ruffed in dummy cutting himself down to fewer trump than West has! Not a good idea. He should have been ruffing in the short hand anyway, to protect that length. Anyway, it's not hard to see why he goes down. He already has a club gone, a diamond to lose and at least a heart, but now he's given the opposition too much ammunition and was down one.
The bottom line is the old standby, Getcher Trump Out and then go after your side-suit winners. Here the advice has to be Getcher Trump Out, except the high one, as you develop your strongest side-suit, which you'll run until a defender spends that high trump and you sluff losers in your most vulnerable suit. And claim.