Hard Luck Louie faced this problem in the club’s monthly team game. West started with three rounds of spades and Louie ruffed the third round. He routinely started on trumps by cashing the king and leading to dummy’s ace. This catered to East possibly holding four hearts to the jack. When East discarded on the second heart, Louie could not make the hand as he had a heart and a club loser to go with the two spades. “Can you believe my luck?” said Louie. “I was cold for 11 tricks on a 3-2 trump split, or if East had four trumps. Everything happens to me.”

Lucky Larry played the same contract with the same defensive start, also ruffing the third spade in hand. He had 11 tricks on a 3-2 trump split and he could never make the hand if trumps split 5-0, so he turned his attention to possible 4-1 splits. Playing in a team game, he didn’t care about the overtrick. He just wanted the best chance to make 10 tricks.

Larry started by cashing the king and queen of hearts. Had both opponents followed, he would have continued with a heart to the ace and claimed the balance. When East discarded on the second heart, Larry started running his diamonds. West ruffed the third diamond and led another spade, but Larry discarded a club from dummy and ruffed in his hand. A trump to dummy’s ace drew the last trump and Larry claimed the balance. Well done!