Play Too Fast Series - Article Six
By Mike Lawrence

When you play a hand, you need to plan not only the current trick, but the succeeding tricks as well. In this series, you will be shown a hand and how it was played. At the end, you will be asked to determine where the play went wrong and what should have been done about it.

South gave the hand a rather poor play. Disappointed with the trumps in dummy, he let his frustration get to him. West lead the king of diamonds. South took it and ruffed a diamond. A spade was led to the king and West let it win. South ruffed another diamond, discarded his remaining diamond on a heart and came to his hand with the king of clubs. South, hoping for a good trump break, led a trump, won by West. West continued diamonds and the result was that South ended up with an emotional ten tricks. Considering that South started with three spades, two hearts, a diamond, and four clubs, plus some number of diamond ruffs in dummy, getting ten tricks was not a triumph.

The solution? Slow down. Declarer gave away the show at trick one. South can make eleven tricks by doing something strange at trick one. Let West have the king of diamonds. What can West do now? If West leads another diamond, South ruffs it in dummy and draws trump. The diamond ace remains as a stopper so West can't force South's trumps.

Basically, West is helpless. South can win any return, go about the business of drawing trump, and take one diamond ruff in dummy in the process. South gets all of his high card tricks, gets a diamond ruff in dummy, and maintains trump control.

Having made eleven tricks, South can now get around to complementing North on his raise.*

An odd hand. If South does bid notrump, he will play it there and he will go down. Too much learning can be dangerous.

*If you are using Support Doubles, North will double two diamonds to show exactly three cards in spades. Curiously, this bid may not help because South may aim for notrump rather than play in a four-three fit. If South did bid three notrump, North would probably pass. Going back to spades with the 762 of spades would not appeal. North probably hated raising with such crummy spades in the first place and would resist.