Column 7B78 (11-17-85) by Richard Pavlicek

Anemic Trump Suit Is No Cause For Alarm

Everyone occasionally reaches a suit contract with a weak trump suit, and it is a natural tendency is to be shy of leading that suit during the play. But this is totally wrong.

Instead of worrying, “How did I get in this mess?” you should be asking yourself, “How can I get out of it?” The solution is usually to lead trumps. In general, the weaker your trump suit is, the more desirable it is to lead that suit to cause the enemy high trumps to fall together. Otherwise, the opponents will win their high trumps separately.

Today’s deal, from a local team game, is a good case in point. South correctly felt his 15-point hand was worth a one-notrump opening because of the abundance of tens, and North responded two-clubs (the Stayman convention) to ask for a four-card major. This resulted in a reasonable four-heart contract. South was a little concerned that his trump suit was only jack-high, but he expected his partner to have at least one of the missing honors.

4 by South

E-W Vul	K Q 8 2 7 4 3 2 8 5 A 6 2
J 4 K Q 9 Q 9 7 4 2 K 7 5		10 9 7 6 5 A 8 J 6 9 8 4 3
Lead: 4	A 3 J 10 6 5 A K 10 3 Q J 10

West Pass Pass

North 2 4

East Pass All Pass

South 1 NT 2

West led a diamond and, when North laid down 7-4-3-2 in trumps, South was mentally defeated. He tried to salvage whatever tricks he could by ruffing a diamond in dummy, but this was overruffed by East to defeat the contract. South dismissed the incident with “Sorry, partner, your trumps weren’t strong enough…” and everyone went on to the next deal.

South went down in a cold contract. Four hearts required only a successful club finesse and a normal trump break. There was no urgency to ruff a diamond in dummy (one diamond could be ruffed later and the other discarded on a spade winner).

All declarer had to do was lead trumps.