On our hand this week we initially have 1 Spade, 3 Hearts, 1 Diamonds and 4 clubs- we need 3 more tricks- if we play the Hearts correctly we will get two more hearts and if we can ruff Diamonds we can get one more. If we ruff Diamonds once then we reduce dummy’s trumps by one and now we only have four trump tricks. However if we ruff twice we will then be able to count four Heart tricks from our hand instead. This is known as a Dummy Reversal where the less dominant hand (hand with fewer trumps) eventually becomes the dominant hand (the hand with more trumps).

With all this in mind, we take the first trick and immediately play a second Diamond and ruff it. (NB We now have parity in trumps between both hands with both hands having four trumps each) We must now play trumps carefully, retaining the K8 tenace in one hand and the Q10 tenace in the other hand, guarding against a 4:0 break, in either hand and guaranteeing no trump losers. We therefore play the Ace first discovering the unfortunate break. We finesse a Heart. We now trump a second Diamond. (It is at this point that your hand has more trumps than dummy and the dummy reversal takes place) We play off the last top trump in dummy . We need to safely get back to hand, via the Spade Ace in order to draw the last trump and enjoy 4 clubs.

We have made1 Spade, 4 Natural trumps only, 1 Diamond, 2 Diamonds ruffed in the long hand and 4 clubs.

You can also watch the following movie to see how the hand pans out. To view this programme you will need  to download htttp://www.haroldschogger.com/bridgevu.setup

  alternatively watch the film www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm

if you would like to comment on this page or say you like it you may do so now :-

Have you tried ATVing yet ?