Before proceeding with the play, declarer should formulate a general plan that makes allowance for the various ways in which the opposing cards might be divided. He might not be able to come up with a plan that guarantees success against every possible distribution, but he should try to find the line of play that offers him the best chance to succeed.

Consider this deal where West led a diamond against South’s four-heart contract. Declarer won East’s nine with the queen and could count 12 tricks if the diamonds were divided 3-2. West’s opening lead, however, had all the earmarks of a singleton, and if it was, the contract was in jeopardy.

Declarer’s task, therefore, was to formulate a line of play that would succeed against a 4-1 diamond break as well as a normal 3-2 division. Accordingly, he cashed the A-K of hearts and was gratified to see both opponents follow suit. He then abandoned further trump leads, leaving a heart at large and the jack in dummy as a later entry, and led the eight of diamonds.

This gave West a chance to ruff, but if he did, dummy would follow low, and declarer would wind up with 11 tricks — five hearts, five diamonds and a club. And if West discarded instead, South would win in dummy, ruff a low diamond high, cross to the jack of hearts and again finish with 11 tricks. West’s play was therefore immaterial.

Note that if declarer had not taken the trouble to assess the situation and had instead blithely drawn three rounds of trump at the outset, he would have gone down. The 4-1 diamond break plus the unfavorable location of the ace of spades would have limited him to nine tricks.

Tomorrow: A very valuable signal.

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