"When not to draw trumps"
This deal is from the June 2018 Bridge World magazine, which has been the leading American bridge publication for almost 80 years. It’s from an article by a very strong Swedish player and analyst named Anders Wirgren. The deal is attributed to an Australian player named Tim Bourke, who apparently has files of thousands of deals from various sources.
This hand is typical of hands requiring careful trump management to overcome a bad trump break.
Dummy
ª 8 7 5
© A 7 6
¨ K 7 6
§ J 9 7 6
West East
ª 3 ª 10 9 6 2
© K Q J 10 3 © 9 8 4 2
¨ J 10 3 2 ¨ 9 8 4
§ A 8 3 § K 4
Declarer
ª A K Q J 4
© 5
¨ A Q 5
§ Q 10 5 2
South West North East
1ª 2© 2ª Pass
4ª All Pass
West leads the ©K to the Ace, and declarer plays two rounds of trumps, getting the bad news.
Do you all see that the hand is cold if trumps are 3-2? Declarer will draw 3 rounds of trumps then just drive out the §AK. The defense has two club stoppers, but declarer’s last two trumps will function as heart stoppers. Note that ruffing a heart before starting clubs lets the defense prevail since they will knock out your last trump when they win their first club trick. Then when they win the other high club, they have some hearts to take.
But with trumps 4-1, this won’t work. Because you have to draw 4 rounds of trumps, you will only have one spade left to use as a heart stopper. What should you do? You can give up, but that’s not the way to improve. So the other alternative is to not draw all the trumps.
You can see that they will now have 3 club stoppers, two high clubs and a trump. Meanwhile you will have to ruff two hearts. But if you stop drawing trumps after two rounds, you will have four trumps left to use as heart stoppers.
So the play should go (starting after the 2nd round of trumps at trick 3) club to them, heart ruffed in hand, club to them, heart ruffed in hand, club. East can ruff this, but now East, South, and North each has one trump. East now has only bed options. He can lead his last trump (you win and take the rest), or he can lead a heart (you ruff in dummy, cross to hand in diamonds, draw the last trump, and claim), or he can lead a diamond (you win, draw the last trump, and claim).
East can also decide to pitch two diamonds on the clubs, but then you just run diamonds at him. Now, when he ruffs in, he will have only hearts and spades left and you know what to do either way.