Bridge

Dummy can be a disappointment sometimes. Can you find a way of making use of East's uninspired collection?

East made two old-fashioned negative responses, then jumped to 4H to show a modicum of support but no controls. West saw no way to find out if partner had a doubleton club, so he simply blasted slam. North led the king of spades, establishing a trick for the defence so that declarer could not afford to duck a club. Prospects looked bleak. What is your plan?

The only hope is to establish diamonds to take care of your black suit losers. That means you need several entries to dummy, so you must pay attention to the trump pips. Cash the ace of diamonds and lead the seven of hearts to the ten. Things perk up a little when South produces the nine of hearts – you now have three entries to dummy. You might ruff two diamonds in hand, but that requires someone to have KQx. A better way to establish diamonds is with a double ruffing finesse. Lead the jack from dummy, and, if South plays low, discard your spade loser. North will probably win and try to cash a spade, but you ruff high and cross to dummy by leading the four of hearts to the six. Now lead the ten of diamonds, and if South plays low, discard a club this time. If everybody follows the suit has broken and you can ruff a diamond high, establishing the fifth diamond. You have carefully kept the eight of hearts to lead to the jack to cash it, and your second club loser disappears.

The trump suit can be a valuable source of entries. When you have a strong suit like this you can afford to be profligate with high cards. After drawing trump try to ensure that you can cross to the weak hand in trump just in case you find that you need an entry.