|
♠ |
4 3 2 |
♥ |
2 |
♦ |
K Q 8 7 2 |
♣ |
7 6 5 4 |
|
|
♠ |
10 |
♥ |
9 8 7 6 3 |
♦ |
J 9 6 |
♣ |
Q J 10 3 |
|
|
♠ |
J 9 8 |
♥ |
J 10 5 4 |
♦ |
A 10 5 3 |
♣ |
9 8 |
|
|
♠ |
A K Q 7 6 5 |
♥ |
A K Q |
♦ |
4 |
♣ |
A K 2 |
|
|
Dummy's club length is annoying. It looks like we have a club loser as well as ♦A. We could set up a diamond in dummy and discard a club from hand on it – if only we had an entry.
We do have an entry. We can ruff a heart! That means we need to delay drawing trumps and we need to set up the diamond winner immediately. So take the first trick and lead a diamond to the king. Let's say that East covers with the ace and plays a second round of clubs. We win, cash the ♥A, ruff a heart and discard a club on dummy's ♦Q. Then we draw trumps and lay the hand down.
The important point is this. Ruffing a loser with short trumps gains a trick. Ruffing a winner with short trumps neither gains nor loses a trick, but it may gain you an entry.
Note that the idea of discarding two clubs on our master hearts and ruffing a club in dummy, is a poor plan. The clubs are likely to fall 4-2, and opponents would gain the ruff instead of us. Also it is not safe to test the trumps with two rounds, because if they fall 3-1 (as is most likely), then the opponent with the ♦A might return a trump to remove our entry to the winning diamond.