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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
Fri 
Day…for less experienced players.
The Cruel Game.
Our declarer felt quite proud of himself while playing today’s deal but was not so happy at the end. Decide how you would play the following 4
contract.
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South Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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1 ♠ |
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Pass |
2 ♣ |
Pass |
2 ♠ |
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Pass |
4 ♠ |
All pass |
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South showed a minimum opening hand with at least 5 spades with their 2 bid. North could thus jump to game as they knew the partnership had at least an 8-card fit and at least 25 hcp.
West led the 
K. Your play?
Well, potential good play turned to disaster for South. South realised they could discard one heart loser by playing three rounds of diamonds. So, that is what the did after winning A at trick 1..or that is what they tried to do.
They even remembered to play 
Q first which many new players forget. With such a holding as the diamond suit above, play the honour from your shorter suit first so that you can play the high honours in the longer suit without “blocking the suit”.
So, at trick 2, they played Q and then a diamond to dummy’s A… and then something unfortunate happened.
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South Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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1 ♠ |
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Pass |
2 ♣ |
Pass |
2 ♠ |
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Pass |
4 ♠ |
All pass |
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On the second round of diamonds, East was able to ruff to win the trick. They then played a heart to West’s J with West next playing Q, a third winner. Subsequently, East won their 
A to defeat the contract by 1 trick.
It was certainly unlucky to suffer such a bad diamond break, 7 in West’s hand. Yet, South forgot one golden rule. If you can and do not need dummy’s trumps for ruffing losers in declarer’s hand, the first thing you should do when you win the lead as declarer, is to draw the opposition’s trumps so they cannot do you any damage.
South got the order of playing suits wrong. Draw trumps in 3 rounds and then play diamonds, discarding a heart on the third round. Then play clubs. All South will lose is A and one heart trick…making one over instead of one under trick.
South could safely draw trumps first. They were certainly unlucky to suffer such a bad diamond break. Yet, had they followed the basic rule of drawing trumps, it would not have mattered.
A cruel game.
Richard Solomon
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