Use It or Lose It
Q J 10 8
9 7
A 10
K Q J 9 2
7 5 2
6
K Q 9 7 4 2
8 6 4
9 4 3
K J 10 5 3
6 3
A 10 5
A K 6
A Q 8 4 2
J 8 5
7 3
| South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 ♥ |
3 ♦ |
Dbl |
Pass |
| 3 ♥ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
Dbl |
| All Pass |
|
It would be hard not to double with East's hand, given that partner
has made a vulnerable preempt and East has what looks like three tricks
in hand.
West led the
♦ K, and declarer, Jeff Miller (OldProf on
OKbridge,) won the ace in dummy and led the
♥ 7, ducked
all around. The
♥ 9 was then lead, again ducked all
around, West pitching a diamond.
Jeff then led a high club off dummy, and East won. East then led a
diamond, and ruffed a diamond, leading to:
East exited a spade, and declarer won in hand, played a club to the queen,
ruffed the
♣ J, and then ran the spades. East was
caught in a coup, forced to ruff in front of declarer's ace-queen.
Somehow, with all those beautiful trumps, she managed to only score
one of them.
East can score two trump tricks by expending a high trump early. Why?
Well, notice that when East got her diamond ruff, she was down to
king-jack-ten in trumps, so she was ruffing with one of the high cards, anyway.
By covering the
♥ 7, she forces South to use a higher
trump, and she can ruff the diamond with one of her low trumps.